329 October 2022 - Gryffe Advertizer

Johnstone History Society
Our second meeting of the new session will be held on
Tuesday 11th October at 7.30pm in the Masonic Hall
in Collier Street. The second speaker is Anne Pitcher
and her subject is “Scottish Storytelling“ this should be
an interesting topic. We hope to see a good turnout
of members and friends all will be made welcome.
The Museum continues to open Wednesday Friday
and Saturday from 10.30am till 4pm. We have
on sale books maps and pamphlets - all of local
interest. These can also be purchased online at
johnstonehistory.org and paid for via PayPal. In the
Museum we now have a card machine which makes
payment easier. This month we are saying farewell to
two of our long serving volunteers who have decided
to retire we would like to thank them for their service
and wish them well for the future.
As you will realise this leaves us short of volunteers,
so if you have time to spare please come into the
Museum and speak to one of the staff or message us
through the website.
The Wee Spree
Festival returns with
plenty of fun activities to keep the kids
entertained, running from 15th - 23rd
October to coincide with the mid-term
break for Renfrewshire schools.
Shows announced include the return of family
entertainment legends The Singing Kettle, dance
parties for parents and kids, and a family ceilidh.
Film screenings will keep little ones entertained and
workshops on everything from animation to circus
performance will interest older kids and teens.
For full programme of events visit:
www.thespree.co.uk/the-wee-spree
Next Deadline...
#330 November: 12th October
History Spot
Finlayson Bousfield & Co., Johnstone. (1844-1898)
For over a century, five generations of the Finlayson family owned the flax mills in Johnstone.
William Finlayson, born in Dunfermline in 1876, had a successful manufacturing business
in Glasgow and was one of the first in Scotland to spin flax on machinery. In 1844, seeing
Johnstone as an expanding new town, William, in partnership with his sons, James (1823-
1903) and Charles (1825-1874), set up a flax spinning factory in the town.
In 1848 William’s sons, James and Charles, in partnership with a young Englishman, Charles
Bousfield, founded Finlayson Bousfield & Co. and took over Barbush Cotton Mill, situated on
the south bank of the Black Cart at Johnstone Bridge on the High Street as their new flax
spinning mill. In the mid-1850s the company also owned Lilybank Mill, a smaller mill, situated
on land behind Lilybank House in Brewery Street.
The company processed raw flax before it was spun in the spinning mill and the final process
was the finishing and dyeing. In the early days, Finlayson Bousfield & Co. produced quality white
and coloured threads. They sent their quality goods for display at national and international
exhibitions. Probably their earliest exhibition was the London Exhibition in 1851 where the
company was a awarded a prize medal for the “strength, taste and neatness in threads”. To
celebrate the award and to promote sales, Finlayson Bousfield used wrapping paper for their
packages showing images of their 1851 prize medal. Two fine examples of this packaging are
on display in Johnstone Museum.
The company quickly prospered and expanded and by 1856 Finlayson Bousfield’s Barbush
Flax Mill was described as “an extensive establishment, adjoining Johnstone Bridge, for
the manufacture of spinning thread”. By the 1860s Finlayson Bousfield & Co. had become
the largest industrial plant in Johnstone and had its head office at 11 St. Enoch Square in
Glasgow.
By the 1870s James’s sons, William, Archibald and James jun., were employed in the mills and
business continued to develop and expand. The firm now owned Lancefield Mill, a small mill
in Clark Street, and, in 1873, built a second large flax mill on the North bank of the River Cart
at Johnstone Bridge. In 1881 Finlayson Bousfield’s Johnstone flax mills were documented as
having a capital of £187,003 and 1,700 employees, and were regarded as the largest flax mill
in Scotland.
James and Charles had become not only successful wealthy businessmen, but also men of
importance and influence in Johnstone who played a significant part in the development
of the town. James had played a key role in the creation of Johnstone as a burgh in 1857.
He founded the Flax Mill Workers Co-operative Society in 1866 which served the town for
almost a century and built workers’ houses in Clark Street in 1872. In his sixties James stood for
parliament and served as MP for Eastwood in 1885-1866. Charles, before his death in 1874,
organized the building of Lilybank Bowling Green, for the use of the company’s employees. It
has stood the test of time and is still a popular bowling green in Johnstone today.
For some years the company had been
exporting abroad, notably to USA and
Australia, where, Richard Allen & Co. of
Melbourne were
sole agents for
Finlayson Bousfield
of Johnstone. In
1878 James’s son,
Archibald, was sent
to USA to explore
the possibility of
setting up a new
mill. Finlayson’s
Flax Spinning Mill
in North Grafton,
Massachusetts, was up and running before 1885.
After consultation in 1897 with other well-established flax mills in
Renfrewshire, Ireland and USA, Finlayson Bousfield & Co. in Johnstone
and Finlayson’s Flax Spinning Mill in North Grafton, USA were founder
members of The Linen Thread Company (1898-1968).
Image: with kind permission of Johnstone Museum
© 2022 Helen Calcluth, Renfrewshire Local History Forum
local community, local business, local life .........
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