Back to our Roots 3 - Paisley

[cessna152towser]

I was born and brought up in Paisley, about a hundred miles away from the town where I now live. This is a panoramic view of Paisley, from the Gleniffer Braes lying to the south of the town. Paisley grew around its 12th century abbey, established seven miles west of Glasgow, and by the start of the industrial revolution had already expanded to a town of 5,000 people. Paisley became famous for handloom weaving and the manufacture of Paisley shawls and later, when the mills came, for the making of thread. Three of my grandparents were from Paisley families (the other one was Irish) and my ancestors, Cunninghams, Gardners, Gilchrists, Hamiltons, McNairs, McLeods and Wallaces were invariably handloom weavers or shawl makers in the late 1700's, and in the 19th century many worked in the thread mills in the making or dying of thread. Today the town has a population of around 100,000 and forms part of the sprawling greater Glasgow conurbation with modern shopping malls, new road layouts, and suburbs of modern housing, but if you look carefully there are still plenty of buildings which would have been familiar to my ancestors. Indeed within the water feature in the right of the photo above, Stanely reservoir, you can just discern the ruins of Stanely Castle.

The poet Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) was born in nearby Castle Street but lived in this cottage in Queen Street from early infancy until his death.

West End Cross. As the Cunningham name originated just a few miles from here it is not unusual to find businesses bearing the same name as my own family.

My old school, the John Neilson, opened in 1852. This is top school which housed twelve classrooms and the headmaster's office, and has now been converted to private residential apartments.

Outside the school at Oakshaw Head. The Paisley landscape features a number of ice age drumlins such as Oakshaw, and I recall being let out of class to view the launch of the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth II from here. Today the growth of trees means the view is more restricted.

The remainder of the school buildings, further down the hill and known as middle school has been demolished and is now a derelict area.

Orr Square church, where I was once an active member has suffered a similar fate, being converted to private housing with the grounds protected by an electronic gate and this was as close as I could get.

The church manse in Oakshaw Street (yellow building) still survives, though no longer in Church of Scotland ownership. Beyond it is the dome of Coats Observatory, opened in 1884.
More to come shortly.