Bishopton | village

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Bishopton is a large village located 11km (6.8 miles) northwest of Paisley, via the A8 or M8 motorway.

Situated a short distance from the Erskine Bridge this village has expanded from a predominately farming commuting through the addition of a variety of modern housing estates to one larger centres for commuting.

In 1900 there were 21 homes in Bishopton and the village continued to grow from then on. By 1920 a further 70 homes and been built, with a further 133 by 1940. Renfrewshire County Council built the first socially rented homes in Bishopton before the second world war. The village saw major housing development throughout the 1960s and 1970s. ln 1988 protests took place in the village to try and stop houses being built on an area of land known as Matey's Field which had once been farmland and later became a children's playground.


POINTS OF INTEREST
The Blantyre Monument is situated in a field adjacent to Ferry Road on the way to Erskine. It is in memory of Robert Walter Stewart, the 11th Lord Blantyre, who lived at nearby Erskine House. A Major-General in the British Army, Lord Blantyre served with the Duke of Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars. He survived the grim Peninsular campaign in Spain and Portugal where he displayed great bravery. Sadly, Lord Blantyre was accidentally killed by a stray bullet while caught in a street riot in Brussels in 1830. Because of the high esteem with which he was killed, his friends and colleagues erected the towering monument at Bishopton in his memory.
By 1841 a railway station at the village had opened and many Irish navvies who had come to Scotland to work on the Glasgow to Ayr line decided to stay in the area leading to a growth in the catholic population. There was no Catholic Church in the village so Catholics would travel to St Fillan's in Houston. Our lady of Lourdes Chapel in Old Greenock Road was built in 1926 by a group of volunteers keen to have a place of worship nearer to home.

There is a long railway tunnel, built by the Glasgow and Greenock Railway. The tunnel and cuttings at either end involved hundreds of workmen for years. The railway line was officially opened on the 1st June 1889. Bishopton Station was opened 1km (0.7 miles) south of the village centre, probably due to the deep railway cutting through the village, and the extra time and money required to widen it to accommodate a station. The hill-ridge which the line passes through separates the Clyde from the low land of the Gryffe valley.


HISTORY
Roman Occupation
There was once a number of Roman camps in the area, including one at Whitemoss Farm at Bishopton, The fort was built on 4.5 acres of land at around 80 AD. Around 500 soldiers were based there to patrol the River Clyde as far as Old Kilpatrick where the Antonine Wall ended and to guard the Dumbuck crossing. A major archaeological excavation took place at Whitemoss between 1951 and 1954. The barracks which were excavated held the horsemen during the Roman Occupation.
Until the early 14th Century the lands of Bishopton were in the hands of the Bishopric of Glasgow. Up until 1671 the estate belonged to the Brisbane family and was then in the hands of the Lords of Blantyre until 1703.

Bishopton was originally two villages, Blackstown and Easter Rossland and in 1840 the two combined, under the name of Bishopton.

The Golf Inn (demolished in 2011) was around 200 years old and said to be the oldest remaining building in the village.


Over the years Bishopton House has been extended and modernised. However some of the old thick walls and vaulted cellars have survived. In 1948 the house became a convent after being taken over by a group of Catholic nuns known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. A home for girls, St Euphrasia's was added as was a school, St Gerard's. A Church was also added which was connected to the main house by a corridor. The house was renamed the Good Shepherd Centre in 1985.

The Bishopton Parish Church was known as the Erskine Parish Church up until the end of 1998. There has been a church in the parish of Erskine since the 12th Century. That church was demolished in 1813 due to the dangerous state it had deteriorated into. The Lords of Blantyre have a special pew in the loft of the church.

The Brisbane family once lived in Bishopton House, and moved to Largs, in Ayrshire, in the 1700's. Their son, Thomas Makdougall Brisbane was born in 1773, and after a successful career, became Governor of the colony of New South Wales in Australia. A settlement in Queensland was named after him - today's state capital of Brisbane.