Whiteabbey - History

History

White Abbey's name is derived from a Roman Catholic Premonstratensian abbey which existed in the area in the Medieval period, the monks of which are said to have worn white robes. All traces of the abbey are now gone although the site, in a field beside the grounds of Whiteabbey Hospital at Doagh Road, remains undeveloped. It can be viewed from the adjacent Abbots Cross Garden Village.

In the first half of the 19th century, the village of Whiteabbey was home to a large bleach works and was an important landing site for coal shipments bound for Belfast. Remnants of the old pier can still be seen in the sea. The importance of Whiteabbey declined after the channel into Belfast harbour was widened and straightened allowing larger ships to reach the city directly.

In 1952, one of Northern Ireland's most controversial murders took place in Whiteabbey when Patricia Curran, the 19-year-old daughter of prominent Judge Ulster Unionist politician Sir Lancelot Curran, was found stabbed near her home, Glen House.

Whiteabbey, together with Whitewell, Whitehouse, Jordanstown, Monkstown, Carnmoney and Glengormley, were the seven villages that formed Newtownabbey when it was designated a 'new town' on 1 April 1958.