Old Photograph Glasgow Road Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of a Tram, horse and cart, buildings and people on Glasgow Road, Paisley, Scotland. By the 19th century, Paisley had established itself as a centre of the weaving industry, giving its name to the Paisley shawl and the Paisley Pattern. The town's associations with political Radicalism were highlighted by its involvement in the Radical War of 1820, with striking weavers being instrumental in the protests. As of 1993, all of Paisley's mills had closed, although they are memorialised in the town's museums and civic history.



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Old Photograph Clark Hall Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of Clark Hall, Paisley, Scotland. Paisley Town Hall, the George A. Clark Town Hall, was funded by Clarks, the owners of the local Anchor thread mill. This and many other remarkably grand buildings in Paisley, testify to the power, influence and success of the textile industry in the town.



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Old Photograph High Street Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of the High Street, Paisley, Scotland. In 1819 riots took place on the High Street by a population committed to parliamentary reform, which in many ways was the start of two decades of agitation for political reform in the town, but which also echoed and reflected Scotland and UK wide struggle for greater democracy.



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Old Photograph Glasgow Rd Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of a Tram, people and houses on Glasgow Road, Paisley, Scotland.

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Old Photograph Glasgow Road Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of Glasgow Road, Paisley, Scotland.

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The High Street thronged with trams and shoppers, Camphill School, the Coats Observatory and Ferguslie Thread Works are a few of the locations pictured in this engaging little book. The author, Don Malcolm, is a well-known resident of the town, and has included many personal and anecdotal recollections alongside interesting facts about Paisley's history. Yesterday's Paisley.

Old Photograph Thomas Coats Memorial Church Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of Thomas Coats Memorial Church, Paisley, Scotland. An example of Gothic Revival architecture. It dominates the town's skyline with its crown spire more than 197 feet high. Opened in 1894 and designed by Hippolyte Jean Blanc it is the largest Baptist church in Europe. The exterior is made of old red sandstone. Inside, the church is decorated with wood carvings, mosaic floors and marble fonts. The church also contains a 3040 pipe Hill Organ.



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Photograph Professor John Wilson Scotland

Photograph of Professor John Wilson, born 1875, in Paisley, Scotland. John was was a Scottish writer, the writer most frequently identified with the pseudonym Christopher North of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.

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Old Photographs Town Hall Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of the Town Hall, Paisley, Scotland. Paisley Town Hall, the George A. Clark Town Hall, was funded by Clarks, the owners of the Anchor thread mill. George Aitken Clark, born 1823, died 1873, was a Scottish manufacturer and benefactor. He was the son of John Clark, a thread manufacturer in Paisley, where he was born on 9 August 1823. He was educated at Paisley grammar school, and in 1840 was sent to the firm of Kerr & Company of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. On reaching manhood he returned to Paisley, and entered into partnership with Messrs. Robert and John Ronald, shawlmakers, under the name of Ronald & Clark. In 1851 Clark gave up his partnership to go into with his brother-in-law, Robert Kerr, as a thread manufacturer. To extend the business he went in 1856 to the United States, and to avoid the tariffs the firm in 1864 established a factory at Newark, New Jersey, USA. It was a success, and Clark's O.N.T. spool cotton soon became a recognized American brand. In 1866 the firm amalgamated with the original firm of Clark under the name of Clark & Co., with an anchor as their trademark. Clark died at Newark on 13 February 1873.




Old photograph of the Town Hall, Paisley, Scotland.

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Old Photograph Causeyside Street Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of Causeyside Street, Paisley, Scotland. The Industrial Revolution based on the textile industry turned Paisley from a small market town to an important industrial town in the late 18th century. Its location attracted English mill owners; immigrants from Ayrshire and the Highlands poured in to a town that offered paying jobs to women and children. By the middle of the19th century weaving had become the town's principal industry. The Paisley weavers' most famous product were the shawls, which bore the Paisley Pattern made fashionable after being worn by a young Queen Victoria. The American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 cut off cotton supplies to the textile mills of Paisley. The mills in 1861 had a stock of cotton in reserve, but by 1862 there was large scale shortages and closures.



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Old Photograph Tram Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of a Tram in Paisley, Scotland. Paisley District Tramways Company took over the Paisley Tramways Company on 17 September 1903 and undertook a programme of modernisation and electrification. The first electric tramway services started on 13 June 1904. There were depots at: Aurs Road, Barrhead; Main Road, Elderslie; Paisley Road, Renfrew. The company was taken over by Glasgow Corporation Tramways on 1 August 1923, which continued to operate trams in Paisley until the late 1950s.



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Old Photograph Paisley Bus Scotland

Old photograph of a horse drawn bus in Paisley, Scotland. A horse-bus or horse drawn omnibus was a large, enclosed and sprung horse drawn vehicle used for passenger transport before the introduction of motor vehicles. It was mainly used in the late 19th century in both the United States and Europe, and was one of the most common means of transportation in cities.



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Old Photograph West End Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of a Tram, shops and the people at the West End, Paisley, Scotland. The West End is on the road to Johnstone on the West, and Glasgow on the East, and stands at the head of Castle Street, the birthplace of the poet Tannahill. Castle Street leads to Castlehead, and to Canal Street Castlehead Church, in the burial ground in lie the remains of Tannahill. The Scottish poet Robert Tannahill was born at Castle Street in Paisley on 3 June 1774, the fourth son in a family of seven. His mother was Janet Pollock from Boghall Farm near Beith and his father was James Tannahill from Kilmarnock. He died on May 17, 1810, after burning all his manuscripts and drowning himself in a culverted stream under the Paisley Canal, where he was found because he had left his jacket at the mouth of the tunnel.



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Old Photograph Causeyside Street Paisley Scotland

Old photograph of Causeyside Street, Paisley, Scotland. In the mid 19th century, the street was devastated by one of the most destructive fires witnessed outside of Glasgow. It began in a cottage at the foot of St Mirren Brae, and spread all the way up Causeyside Street, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. It had started when a thatched roof caught fire, and within a matter of minutes, several roofs of similar thatch caught ablaze.



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