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