Back in my Home Town - Paisley

**cessna152towser** · 19th January 13, 04:56 AM

I was born and brought up in Paisley, which is a town of 100,000 people, part of the greater Glasgow conurbation and seven miles from Glasgow city centre.
Gabriele had not yet been to Paisley, so when we had a few hours to spare after doing some business in Glasgow we took a ride on one of the new trains to Paisley. The Class 380 Desiro trains were built by Siemens of Germany for the Glasgow Airport Rail Link. The tracks between Glasgow and Paisley were upgraded and an additional line installed but it was then decided not to take the railway right into the airport terminal due to the high cost of moving the airport fuel farm so the final mile of the journey to the airport is provided by a shuttle bus from Paisley Gilmour Street station. The friendly train driver was pleased to take our photo beside his train.

Paisley stands on the River White Cart which is a tributary of the Clyde. The limit of the Atlantic high tides is at the waterfall known as The Hamills, where the river drops down from fresh water into salt water. Mills stood on either side of the falls to take advantage of the water power, but nowadays the Anchor Mill seen here has been converted to apartments while the mill behind which I was standing to take this photo is now the Watermill Hotel.

Paisley has many historic buildings but the jewel in the crown is Paisley Abbey, founded in 1163. Paisley Abbey is the burial ground of the High Stewards of Scotland, the sixth of whom Walter Stewart married Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the Bruce in 1315. William Wallace had also received some of his education at Paisley Abbey. This view shows the Place (or Palace) of Paisley with the tower of the abbey behind.

The oldest surviving section of Paisley Abbey is The Nave, seen here. The Abbey ceased to be used as a monastery around 1530 and following years of neglect the tower collapsed around 1553 destroying the roofs and upper walls of the north transept, crossing and choir. The Nave was walled off and continued to be used as the Parish Church of Paisley.

Restoration began with the north porch and north walls of the transept in 1858. Between 1890 and 1907 the north transept, along with the Crossing seen here, were re-roofed and re-united to the Nave.

By 1928 the walls and roof of the Choir had also been restored and this view along the Nave looks into the Choir in the distance.

In the Choir can be seen this organ, originally built in 1872 by Cavaille-Coll of Paris, France. The organ has 4 Manuals (Keyboards), 65 stops and 5,448 pipes.
That's all folks, be sure to include Paisley in your next visit to Scotland!

**GMan** · 19th January 13, 05:20 AM

Wonderful pictures. It is now officially on my places to visit list.

**Grizzly** · 19th January 13, 07:22 AM

Excellent pictures Alex , especially the interiors which are not easy to take.

**Ozark Ridge Rider** · 19th January 13, 07:23 AM

Beautiful pictures, Alex. You just put another stop on the "bucket list".

Thanks,
Dan

**LandRover** · 19th January 13, 08:32 AM

Thanks Alex, I really enjoy seeing pictures of far-away places, places I hope to visit one day.

Paisley shares it's name with a wee town (village? hamlet?) close to me here in central Florida. I've never really given it much thought, but now I'm wondering if there is indeed a Scottish connection. The research begins ...

**plaid preacher** · 19th January 13, 08:33 AM

Wonderful pictures, thanks for the mini-tour. When and if I get to the UK I'm going to have so many places to visit. I'm sure I could easily spend a month. The Isle of Handa is on my list, as that is where my people emmigrated from, and yes I would like to see the Clyde as I grew up on the Clyde River in PEI. So Glasgow... may well be on that ever-growing list.

**Phil** · 19th January 13, 09:10 AM

Thanks for the pics, Alex. A bit of nostalgia as I haven't been in Paisley for nearly 30 years now since I worked in Cardonald! I am sure much has changed since then - I think the Coats Patons factory was still working then.
And, of course, if anyone wonders where the Paisley pattern came from they have the answer now.

**Piipriker** · 19th January 13, 09:14 AM

beautiful. Thanks for sharing

**cessna152towser** · 19th January 13, 09:15 AM

And, of course, if anyone wonders where the Paisley pattern came from they have the answer now.

Yes indeed, and by the way the Paisley tartan which I am wearing in the first photo was first woven at the Anchor Mills (second photo) in 1952. It was adopted by Paisley Corporation as the town tartan and also by the Paisley family as their clan tartan.