Johnstone

Johnstone
Johnstone
Johnstone shown within Renfrewshire
Population 15,687 [1]
OS grid reference NS434628
Council area
Lieutenancy area
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town JOHNSTONE
Postcode district PA5
Dialling code 01505
Police Scottish
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament

Johnstone (Scots: Johnstoun,[2] Scottish Gaelic: Baile Iain)[3] is a town in the council area of Renfrewshire and larger historic county of the same name in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.

The town lies 3 miles (5 km) west of neighbouring Paisley and 12 miles (19 km) west of the centre of the city of Glasgow and 12 miles (19 km) north east of Kilwinning.[4] Part of the biggest conurbation in Scotland, Johnstone is at the western edge of the Greater Glasgow Urban Area.

History

Houston Square with bandstand and fountain gifted by the Laird, George Ludovic Houston, in 1891.[4]

Johnstone was largely a planned community which grew up around the house of Easter Cochrane, later known as Johnstone Castle, seat of the Houston or Houstoun family who gained their name from the nearby village of Houston. In 1782, the Laird, George Houstoun, commissioned designs for a series of regular residential streets which now form the town centre. At this early stage of development, the town’s population including the local estate and rural hinterland was around 1,500.[4] Two mirroring civic squares were also constructed in the town: Houstoun Square and Ludovic Square,[5] the latter named for the Laird's son, and by 1794 the town had gained its current parish church.[6] Johnstone was raised to the status of a police burgh with significant local powers, a status which is now defunct.[6]

The war memorial in Houstoun Square

Industrial development brought both prosperity and poverty to the community. Coal mining occurred in Johnstone, although its main industry was related to the thread and cotton industries, with mills powered by the Black Cart Water which runs to the north of Johnstone.[5] A six-storey cotton mill, one of the largest in Scotland, was built in 1782, and was rescued from failure by Robert Burns of Paisley sometime before 1812. Burns introduced Richard Arkwright's methods for spinning cotton.[7] As the community expanded, slum conditions formed in part of the town: the population by 1831 had increased to a sizeable 5,600.[4] Unfortunately, the owners of Johnstone mill did not make much philanthropic progress among their worker population,[8] and the situation was not addressed until the 1930s by a significant expansion of the size of Johnstone to include a number of purpose-built residential estates.

Much of Johnstone’s feudal heritage has disappeared. With the death of the last Laird in 1931, Johnstone Castle fell into disrepair before being largely demolished in 1950. The remaining tower was purchased in 2001 and is now a private residence. On the site of the former grounds now lies two housing estates, Johnstone Castle and Cochrane Castle. Embedded within Cochrane Castle is the Cochrane Castle Golf Club, which once held the world record for the longest hole. [4]

Education

Johnstone High Parish Church

Thorn Public School, as it was originally called, opened in 1904 on a site that is now occupied by a housing estate, Thornhill Gardens and was demolished in 1990 and a new Thorn Primary School opened in 1988.

In 1950 St. David's Primary School was built along with its sister school Cochrane Castle Primary School. In 2007 the two schools were housed in a new shared building just outside Thomas Shanks Public Park.

Johnstone High School opened on its present site in March 1965, the previous building having burnt down in 1960. Where the old school stood in Ludovic Square there is now a modern health centre. The original St Cuthberts High School was built adjacent to Johnstone High School and shared the same driveway and car parks. The school closed in 1972 and moved to a new site in Hallhill Road Spateston that year. The original school was demolished and replaced by a housing development to the left of the driveway of Johnstone High School.

In 1967, St Curthberts High School was built and established. The school closed at the end of the summer term 2006 along with St. Brendan's High School in Linwood due to falling rolls and the buildings' poor state of repair. These were replaced by a new build St. Benedict's High School, named in honour of St Benedict of Nursia the patron saint of Europe and of students. The old St. Cuthbert's building was used to house several schools (including Johnstone High School from 2008-2009) while their own premises were being refurbished. Similarly to the original St Cuthberts School, the building has subsequently been demolished, with a new housing development taking its place.

Transport

Air

Johnstone is served by Glasgow International Airport, which is located 3 1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) northeast of the town. Moreover, Prestwick International Airport is a 30-to-40-minute train journey from Johnstone railway station.

Road

A dual carriageway, the A737 connects Johnstone to the M8 motorway to provide car transport links to central Scotland.

Bus Services

McGill's Bus Service Limited operate the majority of local services from their depot in the west end of Johnstone.

Key Coaches are a local service operator based in Elderslie.

Other services are provided by many other operators. They are as follows:

Rail

Johnstone is linked to Glasgow Central, Paisley and the Ayrshire coast by the Johnstone railway station which is located at the east of the town on Thorn Brae. A second unmanned station Milliken Park railway station lies at the west end of the town, just off the Cochranemill road. The railway line runs through the cutting of the old Glasgow–Ardrossan canal, although the route of the canal runs under the original bridge, Dick's Bridge, at the bottom of the Thorn Brae, where the canal basin was situated and in winter, the rim of the canal basin sometimes becomes visible.

It may be noted that a second railway line ran through the town serving the villages of Kilbarchan, Bridge of Weir, and Kilmacolm; the line now forms part of the Clyde to Forth cycle route (National Cycle Route 75). It had a station serving the Northern, more industrial areas of town, Johnstone North railway station.

Notable inhabitants

See also

References

  1. ↑ Renfrewshire Community Website – Johnstone Archived 2009-03-21 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ List of railway station names in English, Scots and Gaelic – NewsNetScotland Archived 2013-01-22 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba ~ Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 (Our History and Heritage) Homepage
  5. 1 2 Visiting Renfrewshire
  6. 1 2 University of Edinburgh
  7. ↑ Anthony Cooke, The Rise and Fall of the Scottish Cotton Industry, 1778-1914 (Manchester University Press, 2010), p. 30.
  8. ↑ Anthony Cooke, The Rise and Fall of the Scottish Cotton Industry, 1778-1914 (Manchester University Press, 2010), p. 71-2.
  9. ↑ Mansfield, Susan (21 March 2009). "Up and Coming: Richard Madden – Young man on a role". The Scotsman. thescotsman.scotsman.com. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  10. ↑ Cooper, Neil (12 June 2007). "Less room for doom in the great outdoors". Herald Scotland. heraldscotland.com. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
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