285 June 2018 - Gryffe Advertizer

24
LOCAL
history
The Advertizer
Kilbarchan and the Handloom Weavers
by Helen Calcluth
Little has been published on the history
of Kilbarchan since 1902 when the local
minister, Rev. Robert MacKenzie, wrote
his book , ‘Kilbarchan: A Parish History’.
That excellent work is very informative
and well worth reading but MacKenzie
made little mention of the handloom
weaving industry which had dominated
the village for the previous one hundred
and fi fty years and, obviously, nothing
on weaving in the twentieth century. Of
the three hundred pages in his book,
only one page is devoted specifically to
the weaving industry.
Helen wrote ‘Kilbarchan and the Handloom Weavers’ because she felt
there was a need to research and record the history of handloom weaving
in Kilbarchan.
The plans for Kilbarchan and the Handloom Weavers’ began as a
simple investigation into the history of weaving in Kilbarchan from the
seventeenth century to the 1950s, when the last handloom weaver in
the village plied his trade. The aim was twofold – firstly to collate any
information available on the types of textiles woven in the village and,
secondly, to fi nd out more about the daily life of the Kilbarchan weavers.
Her research into the weaving trade expanded and the book includes, in
addition, information on early local waulkmills and lint mills and a chapter
on the nineteenth century printworks at nearby Locher. Research into
the lives of the Kilbarchan weavers has resulted in a considerable part
of the book dealing with the social history of the village, including some
biographical information on individual weavers and others involved in the
textile trade.
For anyone interested in the history of Kilbarchan the book, published
by Renfrewshire Local History Forum, will be on sale in Bobbins Coffee
Shop, Steeple Street, Kilbarchan, in June or can be purchased from our
website: www.rlhf.info
© 2018, Gina Fisher, Renfrewshire Local History Forum
Johnstone History Society
Our fi nal meeting for this session was on Tuesday the 9th May. This
was a very interesting talk and Professor Oram ‘s delivery made it
even more enjoyable .
The opening meeting for our new session 2018-2019 will take place on
the 11th September when our speaker will be Iain McGillivray who will
be talking about “Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson “ a well known Glasgow
architect. We hope to see a good attendance of returning members
and a watt welcome will be given to any new members wishing to join
the Society. There are many good speakers arranged for our new
session and a syllabus can be picked up from the Museum.
As usual our meetings will take place in the Masonic Hall in
Collier Street.
The Museum will open as usual throughout the summer
Wednesday Friday and Saturday from 10.30am till 4pm.
We have on sale many books and maps, these can also
be purchased online at Johnstone history.org These can
also be paid for via PayPal. The Society would like to wish
everyone a very good summer and hopefully a sunny one.
Kilbarchan June 1918
Private John Murdoch McJury served in the 4th (Hallamshire) Battalion of the
York and Lancaster Regiment. He was born in Maybole, Ayrshire in 1885. In
1901 the family was in Hutcheston. At that time John was a boot top cutter.
He moved to England and married Alice Maud Gibson in Leeds in the Spring
of 1914. His brother David was living at 33 Church Street when John was
killed, aged 33, on 29th June 1918: he is buried at Hagle Dump Cemetery,
west of Ypres, grave reference: 1.H.2.
Supreme Sacrifice
Bridge of Weir & the Great War
100 years ago this month – June 1918
Gunner Andrew Houston, 58th Brigade, Royal
Field Artillery
by Gordon Masterton
In early June 1918 the German Spring Offensive
was still at full operational intensity. The Blucher-
Yorck thrust across the River Aisne began on
27th May and punched a huge 25 mile gap in
the Allied lines, taking 50,000 French and British
prisoners, allowing German troops to reach
the River Marne for the first time since the early weeks of the war. They
were within 35 miles of Paris, and shells were landing there from Krupp’s
huge “Paris Gun” that had an unprecedented range of 80 miles. But that
damage was more psychological than actual, inducing a degree of panic that
led the French government to draw up plans to flee Paris, but on 6th June
the Germans’ rapid advance ground to a halt as problems with supply lines,
exposed flanks and depletion of manpower took their toll. The Allies mustered
counter-attacks and just managed to hold the new line. It was a close run
thing.
Further north, Gunner Andrew Houston was in 58th Brigade Royal Field
Artillery supporting the front line trenches in the Pas-de-Calais. The 58th
was a howitzer brigade with three 4.5-inch guns each pulled by a team of
six horses. Andrew had been a gunner since volunteering in September
1914, and in action since July 1915. His long service might give a misleading
impression that the artillery was a safer posting than the infantry. Although not
front-line trench fodder, the seven gunners on the Bridge of Weir memorial
show just how hazardous their lot was. Each time a shell was fi red, the
enemy tried to take out the source. Andrew had survived almost three years
of dodging shells but his luck ran out on 5th June and he is buried in Pernes
cemetery near Bethune.
Andrew was born in the Wheatsheaf Inn in 1882, the seventh son of the
proprietor Alexander Houston and his wife Ann McNaughton. He became a
butcher, lodging for a time with Robert Millar’s family in Gryffe Place. At 37,
he is one of the older men on the memorial, but the war was blind to age in
the lottery of who lived or died.
Read more about Andrew’s life and untimely death 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.
Supreme Sacrifice is a series of articles leading up to the Armistice in November.
This is a story of 72 young men whose names are commemorated on war memorials in
Bridge of Weir. A village like many others in Britain with similar stories to tell. A village that
was hundreds of miles away from the theatres of war, yet was severely affected. A village
that would never look on the world in quite the same way again. The war was to change
everything.
The full series of articles is available on the Bridge of Weir Memorial Website at http://
www.bridgeofweirmemorial.co.uk/
Deadline date for our July issue - Friday 15th June - you don’t want to miss it!!