Elderslie

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For the suburb of Sydney, Australia, see Elderslie, New South Wales

Elderslie
Elderslie's location locally and nationally
Demographics
Population:	5,180 (1991 Census)
Administration
Local Government Region:	Renfrewshire
Nation:	Scotland
Geography
Traditional County:	Renfrewshire
Former Region:	Strathclyde
Grid reference:	NS445625
Post Office and Telephone
Post Town:	Johnstone
Postcode:	PA5
Dialling Code:	01505

Elderslie (Ach-na-Feàrna in Scottish Gaelic) is a village in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The village, which sits midway between Paisley and Johnstone,

The village of Elderslie is old and has a rich history. The most famous thing about Elderslie is that it is possibly the birth place of Scottish freedom fighter, Sir William Wallace.

The village hosts a large Wallace Memorial and marks the traditional site of William Wallace's birth. There are information panels to help residents and tourists learn more about the site's history.

Elderslie, until recently was home to the world famous Stoddards Carpets. Stoddards over its long history has supplied employment to many generations of residents. Stoddards have supplied carpets to Royal palaces as well as the rich and famous. The company gained recognition when it produced the carpets for the ill-fated liner Titanic. When the film 'Titanic', starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio, was made Stoddards was asked to produce replica carpets for the film set.

Contents 1 Education 2 Leisure 3 Transport 4 Regeneration

[edit] Education

The local school is called Wallace Primary School and was built in the early 70's. The original school sat on the main Road close to the village centre and was demolished with a special needs development built on the site.

[edit] Leisure

The village has a swimming pool located at Stoddart Square, the area was formerly a park,the local young team sometimes drink there tonic wine. There is a golf club "Elderslie golf club" and a bowling club. Football pitches are located at Old Road and Glenpatrick Road although it appears only the grass pitch is open to local use, the "blaes" pitch out of use now the factory has gone.

[edit] Transport

Elderslie station was demolished in the late 60's following Beeching's cuts and was once a very busy station being on the now mainline between Ayrshire and Glasgow. Pressed Steel/Rootes/Chrysler had a large presence in the area up until around 1980 when the car factory closed.There were extensive sidings used for loading cars onto transporter trains. There was a Tram depot on the road to Paisley which was gutted by fire and demolished in the 70's there has never been any development on the site which is adjacent to the tenements known as Newton Terrace. The dismantled railway line which ran from Paisley Canal Street station (reopened a few years ago as a line end station from Glasgow)now has a cycle track which runs through Elderslie, by Johnstone, up to Kilbarchan and onto Lochwinnoch and Kilbirnie.

[edit] Regeneration

In recent years the village has seen a lot of regeneration.

Currently the village has many housing building sites and the population is going up faster than ever. Elderslie has a local shopping area which boasts a butchers, grocery shop, barbers, hairdressers, chemist, flower shops as well as several food takeaways shops.