282 March 2018 - Gryffe Advertizer

24
LOCAL
history
the advertizer
Renfrewshire Tile Works
In the 18th century, the most obvious improvement to farmland was
the enclosure of fi elds. Less noticeable, but equally important, was
underground drainage.
From the 1750s, huge increases in quantity and quality of crops, resulted
from the drainage of fl at fields and bogs. The digging of ditches and
fi lling them with rubble was common practice on any forward-looking
Renfrewshire estate. Further improvements could be made by lining
the bottom of the ditch with flat stones, to form underground drainage
channels.
From the 1830s, interest grew
in an even better solution: the
laying of manufactured clay
pipes, known as ‘tiles’. Initially
the tiles were u-shaped, not
circular, as they were easier to
make. Clay was pressed flat
and cut into rectangles, then
folded by hand over rods, to form
each tile. They were then dried
and fi red in kilns. Laid open-side
down, the tiles often included a
separate fl at clay ‘sole’. They
were known as drainage ‘tiles’, probably because they resembled the
curving red roof tiles imported from Holland.
In the 1830s and 40s the ministers of Erskine and Renfrew described
tile draining as the ‘greatest improvement to agriculture in recent years,
which is going forward in nearly all the farms in this parish’. The drainage
had particular benefi ts in the growing of potatoes.
Most large estates sought a supply of clay to set up their own tile works.
The landowner usually provided the tiles, with his tenants carrying out
the heavy work of digging and laying the tiles at regular intervals across
their fi elds. Apart from improving drainage, the old ridges and furrows
were no longer required, and were flattened out.
The best fi reclays were found around the north and west of Paisley
at Walkinshaw, Ferguslie, Caledonia and Inkerman. These quality
fi reclays were valuable enough to be mined from the same shaft as
coal, which was used to fuel the tile kilns. Although these big works
usually produced drain tiles, their high quality clays were suitable for
a whole catalogue of sanitary ware. Most tiles for draining fields were
produced at smaller rural ‘Brick and Tile Works’ which will be discussed
in next month’s Advertizer.
© 2018, Stuart Nisbet, Renfrewshire Local History forum
The Forum’s next archaeology lecture will take place in the Shawl Gallery in Paisley
Museum at 7.30pm on Thursday, 8th March. Our speaker is Alan Blair of GUARD
Archaeology. His topic is. Bronze Age Roundhouse and a Late Bronze Age Hoard
at Carnoustie. Visitors are most welcome to attend our archaeology lectures.
Bridge of Weir in the Great War
100 years ago this month – March 1918
Captain Alex Cameron, 6th, attached 8th Argylls
Corporal Charles Morgan, 8th Argylls
In 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution had led to an
uneasy peace between Russia and Germany,
allowing Germany to move manpower to the
Western Front. The USA had joined the war in
April 1917 but by March 1918 still only had four
raw Divisions (about 70,000 men) in France.
Ludendorff saw a window of opportunity to win
the war with Germany’s greater numbers in its
most important theatre, before the continuing
US build-up tipped the balance.
The day he chose to launch his Spring
Offensive, or “Kaiserschlacht” (Kaiser’s
Battle) was 21st March 1918, the main thrust
directed near Saint Quentin, where the French
and British Armies met. He hoped to drive a
wedge between them, rolling up the flank of the British Armies from the
south, and pushing them towards the Channel coast.
It wasn’t unexpected. German preparations for battle had been observed
but Haig’s pleas for more men to strengthen the outnumbered sectors of
the front were resisted by Lloyd George.
On the first morning of the Kaiserschlacht, Ludendorff launched the
biggest artillery bombardment of the war, over 1,100,000 shells in fi ve
hours, against the British Fifth and Third Armies. Directly facing that
terrifying onslaught were the 8th Argylls, then in the 61st Division, which
held the line north west of St Quentin. Amongst them were two men
from Bridge of Weir.
Captain Alex Cameron, the son of a schoolteacher
from Johnstone, was a successful businessman,
a partner of Thomas Wiseman and Son, foreign
merchants, and had married Gertrude Cowan in
1910, settling in Watt Road. He was a keen golfer
and tennis player but as a Territorial he had been
on active service since August 1914, initially training
recruits in England. He was posted to France in
December 1917, and attached to 8th Argylls on 1st
January 1918. On 21st March they were in reserve
huts at Marteville, but by mid-morning the Germans
had overwhelmed the front line and the 8th Argylls
were in action, managing to hold their positions. The battalion casualties
that day were however:
“Officers: 1 Killed; 4 Wounded; 2 Missing: Other Ranks: 14 Killed; 102
Wounded; 142 Missing.”
Alex Cameron was the officer killed.
Corporal Charlie Morgan had trained in the family
bakery and confectionary business in Ranfurly and
won prizes at Glasgow Technical College. He had
been captain of the Kilmacolm football team, and
married Ruby Boyle in April 1917. He was a full
cousin of Tommy Morgan, later to become one of
Glasgow’s best-known comedians. Charlie was
one of the 8th Argyll’s 142 missing on the 21st March, but it wasn’t until
January 1919 that any hopes of him having been captured were dashed
and the family received official intimation that he was presumed dead
that day. He probably never saw his daughter Agnes who was born on
1st February 1918.
Read more about Alex and Charlie’s lives and untimely deaths at http://www.
bridgeofweirmemorial.co.uk and in the book “Supreme Sacrifi ce: A Small
Village and the Great War available from www.birlinn.co.uk or Abbey Books, 2
Well Street, Paisley, and other major bookshops or online.
Gordon Masterton
deadline date for our april issue - Friday 16th March - You don’t want to miss it!!