Castlehead is a district of Paisley in Scotland. It is a heavily wooded area of Victorian villas where many of Paisley's most influential industrialists and professionals made their homes as a nineteenth-century industrial boom town became overcrowded.
Early history
In the Middle Ages Castlehead made up part of Paisley Abbey's outfield lands, primarily used for raising crops. The land remained in ownership of the Abbey until the Maxwells (descended from the Maxwells of Caerlaverock) acquired the lands in the 17th century, and built upon them a manor house. This building was eventually to be replaced by 'The Old House' built in 1770 by James Maxwell.
Situated to the southwest of Paisley's teeming West End, the difficult terrain and the separation provided by the Paisley and Ardrossan Canal and later the Glasgow and South Western Railway kept Castlehead apart and undeveloped in the early 19th century. Its only buildings were a church and manse at the foot of the hill and the Old House.
Canal Street Church/West Relief Church, now Castlehead Church was built by Paisley weavers between 1781-82, and later refurbished in 1868. Among those buried in its churchyard were the poet Robert Tannahill and the maternal great-grandparents of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The President visited the site during a brief trip to Scotland in 1991.
Latter 19th century In the 1850s, there was an unlikely coal mining enterprise on the lower slopes of the hill, roughly where Low Road stands today. James Young visited the site in 1856 to inspect the coal, however he decided that it was not of sufficient quality. The coal pit was short lived and bankrupted the family involved. To pay off the debt in part, the lands of Castlehead were sold by auction.
As Paisley developed rapidly, the overcrowding and unhygienic conditions of what became known as "the dirtiest town in Scotland" drove the merchant classes outwards and upwards. Social pressures overcame the problems of an unsuitable building site and "upward mobility" came to Paisley a hundred years before the phrase was coined.
William Wotherspoon of Maxwellton, the feudal superior, began breaking the land into feus in 1861. By 1863, the Paisley Herald noted that another family residence had been erected in the area and that more were being considered. The writer saw this as excellent news for the local building trades and urged townspeople to visit this scarcely known vantage point to admire the splendid views -- "the town lying like a panoramic picture at your left and from all directions". He went on: "We would cordially recommend all who may find it convenient to do so to visit the ground, especially those who wish to erect a family residence".
Paisley Museum and Art Gallery has a map dated 1864 on which Wotherspoon and his agents, Reid and Henderson, writers, extol the virtues of their new venture. The map shows Castlehead with the housing plots marked and conforming fairly accurately to the layout that has survived to the twenty-first century. A note in the bottom right corner states "The ground is beautifully situated, commands the finest views around Paisley, has fine southern and western exposures, is within a seven-minute drive of the railway station, and the soil is of the richest nature".
A year later, the Paisley Herald reported that the area of Castlehead had been "tastefully mapped out into nearly 60 feus. Several villas in plain and ornate styles are being erected at prices varying from £1000 to £2000 and more are expected to follow."
Prominent residents and buildings By the time Castlehead was being established, most of the J. & P. Coats textiles family already had country estates far more imposing than anything the new Paisley development could offer. And while none of the new residents could match the Coats for wealth, they were among the wealthiest and most influential families in town and were not slow to put something back into the town that had made them prosperous.
Archibald Craig of Belmont, managing director of A F Craig, a major Paisley engineering company, owned the town's first Rolls-Royce (XS 6), and was the first of three Castlehead residents to give large sums towards the restoration of Paisley Abbey.
The magnificent building as we know it today only began to emerge from its Reformation ruins in the 1850s with the restoration of the nave and transepts. Then, in the 1890s, work began on restoring the cloisters. The financial backing for this came from Craig and it was his wife who laid the foundation stone. The work was completed in 1915, and by that time another Castlehead resident was financing an equally ambitious renewal project.
Robert Allison, of Rosemount (18 Main Road), started off in Love Street with a timber business. By the 1890s his company, Allison Cousland, had diversified into shipping, timber and insurance brokerage and had offices in St Vincent Street, Glasgow. He had no children and dispensed much of his considerable wealth on the fabric and welfare of Paisley. In 1912 he gave £8000, an enormous sum in those days, to the Abbey to complete the building of the tower from roof-level up. His gift is commemorated in stone above the tower door.
The work was postponed by the outbreak of war and when it resumed in 1922 inflation had produced a £6000 shortfall. Robert Allison stepped in again. Until his death in 1926 he also gave large sums to the ongoing clearance of the warren of slums around the Abbey and the reclamation of the grounds and graveyard.
Another important gift to the Abbey came from Castlehead when, in the 1950s, James W Begbie, of Southdene (36 Main Road) put up the money for the gates between the Abbey and St Mirin's Chapel.
Many years earlier, in 1891, Robert Allison had funded the building of Greenlaw Church's Arthur Allison Memorial Hall at Whitehaugh in memory of a brother. That project was a classic example of the Castlehead Mafia in action. He and a third brother, William, provided the timber, T.G. Abercrombie (Redholme, 5 Main Road)) was the architect, William Taylor was the stonemason and builder, John F Baird supplied the bricks and mortar, George G Kirk was the glass merchant. It is a fairly safe bet that at least one of Castlehead's army of solicitors, writers and notaries public handled the legal niceties.
The Russell Institute, the children's clinic at the corner of New Street and Causeyside, is another Castlehead legacy to the town. It was the gift of Miss Agnes Russell, of Muirfield, (32 Main Road) in memory of her brothers, Robert (also of Muirfield) and Thomas Russell, partners in the legal firm R & T Russell.
When she first came up with the scheme, Miss Russell went to her Castlehead neighbour, the architect T.G. Abercrombie. That was in 1923, but Abercrombie died in 1926 and the completed building is usually attributed to the man who had become his partner – J Steel Maitland. It seems unlikely that the prolific Abercrombie did not contribute at the planning stage of what is generally believed to be the first building in the West of Scotland with a reinforced concrete frame. The institute was opened by the Princess Royal in 1927.
Thomas Rowat of Warriston was already a very wealthy man by 1870 from his family's Thibet shawl and textile finishing company. By 1890, he was a major figure in Howard, Houlder and Malcolm, steamship and insurance brokers of 111 Union Street Glasgow and part of the Liverpool-based Houlder Line.
Warriston (16 Main Road) was one of the biggest and most imposing residences in Castlehead, which was just as well, because Rowat had nine children. He had married Margaret Greenlees, of the textiles and shipping family, in 1856. Thirty years later both families were in Castlehead and Thomas and Margaret had produced an impressive brood, even by Victorian standards. There were four sons. Robert had his own shipping company, with offices in Wellington Street, Glasgow. This enterprise was eventually merged with the Greenlees interests. Thomas became a broker in London. Matthew became a tea planter in India and Claude a stockbroker in Glasgow. His company had become C.W Rowat and Millar by 1925.
Of the five Rowat daughters, three were married – Isa to Robert Wylie Hill of the Glasgow department store – but two, Mary and Lucy, did not marry and lived at Warriston until after the Second World War.
Castlehead continues to be the home of a number of prominent Paisley residents, including singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini and sculptor Alexander Stoddart.
Below is a table containing the number, name, date, first proprietor and their occupation for the houses of Main, High and Low Roads
Main Road Number Original Name Date Built for Occupation 1 Mount Pleasant c.1820s Rev. Banks Minister of Canal Street U.P. Church 3 Redholme 1889 Thomas Abercrombie Architect, Abercrombie & Symington, 97 High Street 5 Potter's Field c.1866 Robert Abercrombie Abercrombie & Craig Engineers, 32 Lady Lane 7 Westlands c.1866 Alexander Begg Dalziel & Begg Shawl Manufacturers, 112 Causeyside 9 Belmont c.1866 Hugh Cowan Sheriff Substitute 10 Woodend c.1864 William McIntyre Wholesale Stationer, Works - blackhall, shop and warehouse - 6 High Street 11 Ashgrove c.1866 Rev. Andrew Henderson Minister of Abbey Close U.P. Church 12 The Mound c.1870 Hugh Muir Unknown 14 Castlehead House 1770 James Maxwell of Castlehead Merchant and Landowner - Castlehead Cottage (Demolished) 1700s James Maxwell of Castlehead Merchant and Landowner 15 Ferndean c.1866 Thomas Greenlees Thomas Greenlees & Co. Manufacturer of Woollen Goods 16 Warriston c.1862 Thomas W Macalpine Drysalter, 48 Moss Street, Store – George Place 17 Bellevue c.1866 Alexander Speirs Speirs & Gibb Coal Merchants & Fireclay Manufactures, Stoney Brae/Underwood Depot 18 Rosemount c.1861 Archibald Hodge Accountant for J&P Coats 19 Priory Park c.1874 John Young John Young & Co. Timber Merchants, Burgh Saw Mills 20 Wallace Bank c.1864 James McMurchy Shawl Manufacturer 21 The Elms (Demolished 1938) c.1880 William Gardner Logan & Gardner Shawl Manufacturer 22 Bloomfield c.1864 Robert F Dalziel Dalziel & Begg Shawl Manufactures 23 Ecclestoun c.1878 Rev. George Clazy Minister of Reformed Presbyterian Church, 38 Oakshaw Street 24 Englethwaite c.1864 Archibald Barr Yarn Merchant 25 Auchinean c.1872 William Murray David Murray & Son, House Painters and Decorators 26 Netherton c.1871 Thomas Greenlees Thomas Greenlees & Co. 28 Langholm c.1872 James Murray Manufacturer, Causeyside Street 29 South Manse c.1878 Rev. C McDonald Minister of South Church 30 Moredun House c.1873 John Armour Brown Brown & Polson, Corn Flour & Starch Manufacturers 31 Mossgiel E Murray 32 Balgonie c.1875 George McKenzie Photographer, 5 Gilmour Street/Willowbrae, Piershill, Edinburgh 33 Fairholme c.1882 W.B. McLennan Campbell & McLennan, Shawl Manufacturers 34 Knockbrecken c.1875 Robert Millar J&R Millar, Manufacturers 35 The Laurels c.1884 Joseph Lochhead McInnes, McKenzie & Lochhead, Writers, 7 Gilmour Street 36 Southdene c.1875 John Millar J&R Millar, Manufacturers 37 The Cottage George Watt Wine & Spirit Merchant 38 Dunscore c.1876 John K Crawford M. Whitehill & Co. Shawl Manufactures 40 Dunrod c.1878 John Stirling Wine & Spirit Merchant
High Road Number Original Name Date Built for Occupation 2 Ellangowan c.1866 David Murray Provost and Collector of Inland Revenue 4 Newton Bank c.1866 James McKean Wine & Spirit Merchant, 63 Causeyside 6 Double Villa c.1872 James Parlane J&R Parlane, Printers, Bookbinders, 97 High Street, Works – School Wynd 8 Tullieallan c.1875 David Wilson M. Whitehill & Co. Shawl Manufactures 9 Edgehill c.1868 Mrs Eliza Glen No occupation 10 Morven c.1873 Andrew D Gibb Speirs & Gibb Coal Merchants & Fireclay Manufactures, Stoney Brae/Underwood Depot 12 St. James Manse c.1874 Rev. James Brown Minister of St. James Street U.P. Church
Low Road