255 December 2015 - Gryffe Advertizer

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LOCAL
history
Miss Frances Barrow
“Rosemount” Bridge of Weir
Donations to Paisley Art Institute
Paisley Museum and Art Gallery is hosting a free art
exhibition which runs until 24th January 2016 .The collection
on display showcases a variety of new discoveries including
one of only two examples left in Scotland of a ‘Reform
Dress’.
This dress was made at Glasgow School of Art by the
daughter of the Paisley Art Institute founder and was a Miss Frances Barrow
Scottish response to the tyranny of corsetry and bustles. The (16/12/21-1/3/15)
Reform Dress design concept even accompanied Charles
Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald to Germany and Austria.
Readers may be interested to know that it was actually
Miss Barrow’s mother who made this dress, which was
donated to Paisley Art Institute for their Centenary display.
Frances, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, often
fondly reminisced about her mother studying at Glasgow
School of Art alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Her
grandfather James Anderson also an artist was a founding
member of Paisley Art Institute. It is a great pity that due
to her illness she did not fulfil her wish to see these items
displayed but am positive she will be looking down, proud
as can be that some of her family treasures are now where
they rightly belong.
Oil paintings and pastels took pride of place in Frances’
lounge, and she had a collection of Paisley Art Gallery
Exhibition Programmes dating back to the 1920s. Some of
Frances treasures also included some delicate and intricate crochet and embroidery
which she herself and family members had completed.
Frances spent her childhood in
Bolerno Cottage in Bishopton
which had been her mother’s family
home for some generations. The
Barrows moved to Bridge of Weir
when Frances was in her teens.
Not long afterwards Frances’
mother had a debilitating stroke
and Frances devoted much of her
life to caring for her mother, and
later her father, before going on to
pursue a career in Occupational
Therapy.
Frances was a very well known, respected and loved figure in the village, where
she had many friends.
Alison McCarley, Support Worker, Your Care at Home Ltd, Howwood, had the privilege
and pleasure of being her support worker and friend for 3 years before she passed
away, and she put this little piece together with help from her very good neighbour &
friend Jenny Jackson, Rosemount (with the permission of the Care Home).
The History Spot
Drownings in Castle Semple Loch and holding
Mill Owners to Ransom
Once the water in Castle Semple Loch was lowered, the locals took
a shortcut across the centre of the loch at the ‘Wading Place’ to
Lochwinnoch. But this was a dangerous route. In the winter of 1767
a young lady and her footman were drowned there, in full view of
her mother, brother and fiancé. Later a causeway was built and the
crossing became the modern road from Lochwinnoch station to the
village. Over the years, the gradual development of this road split
the single long stretch of water into two lochs, Barr Loch and Castle
Semple Loch.
There was another bigger difficulty for the locals. Back in 1680s,
when the Semples had begun to drain the loch, they had drawn up a
legal agreement that any new dry land created around the shrinking
loch would become their own property. Once McDowall took control,
he tried to enforce the old agreement to the letter of the law. Defying
fairness and common sense, he attempted to prevent access to the
shrinking loch by all those living around the perimeter, even to water
their cattle.
McDowall’s desire for privacy and improvement created barriers at
every turn for the local population, when going about their daily lives.
McDowall also enclosed all the land along the loch and blocked the
public road. The purpose was two-fold, to create separate enclosed
fields, and to keep the local riff raff away from his mansion. This
process of wealthy landowners denying access is familiar today,
but in 1730 it was one of the earliest challenges to the public’s
right to roam. The locals took McDowall to Court of Session and
unexpectedly, they won. McDowall was forced to reinstate the
bridges across the narrows of the loch.
The third big scheme was by McDowall’s grandson. From the 1770s
he rebuilt the old dam at the east end of the loch and start of the
Black Cart. His initial purpose was to re-flood the loch as a landscape
feature, with man-made islands fronting his mansion.
But from the early 1790s he
had other reasons. By this
time the loch had become a
reservoir for six new water
powered cotton spinning
mills down the Black Cart
at Johnstone and Linwood.
McDowall closed the sluice
in the dam and held the mill
owners to ransom. They had
no choice but to pay him fees in proportion to the size of their mills.
©2015, Stuart Nisbet, Renfrewshire Local History Forum
Renfrewshire Local History Forum’s next Archaeology Lecture takes
place in the Shawl Gallery, Paisley Museum at 7.30.on 10th December.
Archaeologist Tertia Barnett will give a talk on her work in the Libyan
desert, entitled An engraved landscape; rock carvings in the Libyan
Sahara. Visitors are always welcome at our lecture meetings.
Johnstone History Society
Johnstone History Society have their December meeting on the 8th of
the month as usual it will be in the Masonic Hall Collier Street at 7.30pm.
This month our speaker will be Jennifer Giles and she will be speaking on
Modern Collections in the National Library of Scotland. Last month we had
a very informative and enjoyable talk on Flanders Field from Alexander Hall
this was well attended by old members and a number of new members .
The Museum continues to open Wednesday Friday and Saturday from
10.30am till 4pm. The Museum is situated in Morrison’s at the Collier Street
end. We have a number of maps and books for sale also our Johnstone
Calendar for 2016 at the very reasonable price of £7. These can also be
purchased online at www.johnstonehistory.org