Tour Scotland Video Of Old Photographs Of Johnstone Renfrewshire

Tour Scotland wee travel video Blog of old photographs of Johnstone, Scottish Gaelic: Baile Iain, a town in the council area of Renfrewshire and larger historic county of the same name in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. This Scottish town was a planned community created in the latter half of the 18th century by the local Laird, George Ludovic Houston who held an estate in the town, the remains of which are known as Johnstone Castle. Industrial development brought coal mining, thread-making and cotton weaving to Johnstone causing it to grow considerably in size, expanding out in the 1930s with a number of newly built residential areas which addressed the problem of population density in the historic area of the town. Today it supports a small commercial centre and serves as a commuter settlement for Paisley and Glasgow. Shanks Park in Johnstone is named after a leading industrialist of the nineteenth century who owned a company of heavy machine toolmakers, Thomas Shanks and Company. Thomas Shanks was Johnstone's first chief magistrate. Thomas's daughter, Mrs J Polson, gifted the park to the town in the name of her late father.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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