Johnstone
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Town | |
From top, left to right: Houstoun Square, Johnstone War Memorial, Johnstone Castle, Johnstone Parish Church, Johnstone railway station | |
Location within Renfrewshire | |
Population | 15,930 (2022) [1] |
Language | English, Scots |
OS grid reference | NS434628 |
• Edinburgh | 52 mi (84 km) |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | JOHNSTONE |
Postcode district | PA5, PA6, PA9, PA10 |
Dialling code | 01505 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament |
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Johnstone (Scots : Johnstoun, [2] Scottish Gaelic : Baile Iain) [3] is a town in the administrative area of Renfrewshire and larger historic county of the same name, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.
The town lies 3 miles (5 km) west of neighbouring Paisley, 12 miles (19 km) west of the centre of the city of Glasgow and 12 miles (19 km) north east of Kilwinning. [4] Part of the biggest conurbation in Scotland, Johnstone is at the western edge of the Greater Glasgow Urban Area.
Johnstone was largely a planned community which grew up around the house of Easter Cochrane, later known as Johnstone Castle, seat of the Houston or Houstoun family who gained their name from the nearby village of Houston. In 1782, the Laird, George Houstoun, commissioned designs for a series of regular residential streets, which now form the town centre. At this early stage of development, the town's population including the local estate and rural hinterland was around 1,500. [4] Two mirroring civic squares were also constructed in the town: Houstoun Square and Ludovic Square, [5] the latter named for the Laird's son, and by 1794 the town had gained its current parish church. [6] Johnstone was raised to the status of a police burgh with significant local powers, a status which is now defunct. The former court building continues to stand in Collier Street. [6]
Industrial development brought both prosperity and poverty to the community. Coal mining occurred in Johnstone, although its main industry was related to the thread and cotton industries, with mills powered by the Black Cart Water which runs to the north of Johnstone. [5] A six-storey cotton mill, one of the largest in Scotland, was built in 1782, and was rescued from failure by Robert Burns of Paisley sometime before 1812. Burns introduced Richard Arkwright's methods for spinning cotton. [7] As the community expanded, slum conditions formed in part of the town: the population by 1831 had increased to a sizeable 5,600. [4] Unfortunately, the owners of Johnstone mill did not make much philanthropic progress among their worker population, [8] and the situation was not addressed until the 1930s by a significant expansion of the size of Johnstone to include a number of purpose-built residential estates.
Much of Johnstone's feudal heritage has disappeared. With the death of the last Laird in 1931, Johnstone Castle fell into disrepair before being largely demolished in 1950. The remaining tower was purchased in 2001 and is now a private residence. On the site of the former grounds now lies two housing estates, Johnstone Castle and Cochrane Castle. Embedded within Cochrane Castle is the Cochrane Castle Golf Club, which once held the world record for the longest hole. [4]
More recently, Johnstone History Museum [9] opened in 2008 – notably becoming the world's first museum located inside a supermarket. [10]
In 2015, the new Town Hall was completed at a cost of £14.5m. [11] [12]
The town is home to Johnstone Pipe Band who compete in the highest level of pipe band competitions, Grade 1. The band was founded in 1943 and wears the Blue Mackay tartan. [13]
Thorn Public School, as it was originally called, opened in 1904. A new Thorn primary school opened in 1988, the same year that the former building was demolished. The old site is now occupied by a housing estate, although parts of the original walls are still standing. In 1950 St. David's Primary School was built along with its sister school Cochrane Castle Primary School. In 2007 the two schools were housed in a new shared building nearby, 'West Johnstone Shared Campus', just outside Thomas Shanks Public Park, the locations of the original schools (between Dundonald Avenue and Craigview Avenue) remain overgrown 'gap sites' awaiting redevelopment.
Johnstone High School [14] opened on its current site off Beith Road in March 1965, the previous building in Ludovic Square having burnt down in 1960 (there is now a modern health centre on its site). Its redeveloped campus opened in late 2009. [15]
The original St Cuthberts High School was built adjacent to Johnstone High School and shared the same driveway and car parks. The school closed in 1972 and moved to a new site in Hallhill Road, Spateston that year. The original school was demolished and replaced by a housing development to the left of the driveway of Johnstone High School. The school at Spateston closed at the end of the summer term of 2006 along with St Brendan's High School in Linwood due to falling rolls and the buildings' poor state of repair. These were replaced by a new build St Benedict's High School at Linwood (named in honour of St Benedict of Nursia, the patron saint of Europe and of students). The old St Cuthbert's building was used to house several schools while their own premises were being refurbished (including Johnstone High School from 2008 to 2009). It was also subsequently demolished in 2010 and has since been replaced by new housing. [16]
The town contains churches of several Christian denominations: three Church of Scotland, two Roman Catholic, one Scottish Episcopal Church, one Evangelical and one Baptist.
The town is home to the Johnstone Burgh and Thorn Athletic football teams, which currently play in the Premier and Third Divisions of the West of Scotland Football League respectively.
The town is split between the Johnstone South and Elderslie and Johnstone North, Kilbarchan, Howwood and Lochwinnoch wards for elections to Renfrewshire Council, which elect four councillors each using the Single Transferable Vote. The 2022 Renfrewshire Council election saw councillors elected across the two wards being four Labour Party, three Scottish National Party (SNP) and one Independent.
For elections to the Scottish Parliament, Johnstone is included in the constituency of Renfrewshire South, currently held by SNP politician Tom Arthur since 2016. Johnstone is also included in the West Scotland region which elects seven additional members. In the UK Parliament the town is contained within the seat of Paisley and Renfrewshire South, represented by the Labour Party's Johanna Baxter since the 2024 general election.
Johnstone is served by Glasgow International Airport, which is located 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) northeast of the town. Moreover, Prestwick International Airport is a 30-to-40-minute train journey from Johnstone railway station.
A dual carriageway, the A737, connects Johnstone to the M8 motorway to provide car transport links to central Scotland.
McGill's Bus Service Limited operate the majority of local services from their depot in the west end of Johnstone, running the following routes serving the town
Shuttle Buses, based in Kilwinning, Ayrshire runs the following services:
Johnstone is linked to Glasgow Central, Paisley and the Ayrshire coast by the Johnstone railway station which is located at the east of the town on Thorn Brae. A second unmanned station Milliken Park railway station lies at the west end of the town, just off the Cochranemill road. The railway line runs through the cutting of the old Glasgow–Ardrossan Canal, although the route of the canal runs under the original bridge, Dick's Bridge, at the bottom of the Thorn Brae, where the canal basin was situated and in winter, the rim of the canal basin sometimes becomes visible.
It may be noted that a second railway line ran through the town serving the villages of Kilbarchan, Bridge of Weir, and Kilmacolm; the line now forms part of the Clyde to Forth cycle route (National Cycle Route 75). It had a station serving the Northern, more industrial areas of town, Johnstone North railway station.
Renfrewshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Lochwinnoch is a village in the council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Lying on the banks of Castle Semple Loch and the River Calder, Lochwinnoch is chiefly a residential dormitory village serving nearby urban centres such as Glasgow and Paisley. Its population in 2001 was 2628 and in 2022 was 2769.
Houston, is a village in the council area of Renfrewshire and the larger historic county of the same name in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.
Howwood is a village in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is between Johnstone and Lochwinnoch, just off the A737 dual carriageway between the nearby town of Paisley and the Ayrshire border. It is served by Howwood railway station.
Paisley and Renfrewshire South is a constituency of the House of Commons, located in Renfrewshire, Scotland to the southwest of Glasgow. It elects one member of Parliament at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
Renfrew District was, between 1975 and 1996, one of nineteen local government districts in the Strathclyde region of Scotland.
West Renfrewshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1983 and again from 1997 until 2005. In 2005 the constituency was abolished and the area is now represented by Inverclyde, Paisley and Renfrewshire North and Paisley and Renfrewshire South.
The River Cart is a tributary of the River Clyde, Scotland, which it joins from the west roughly midway between the towns of Erskine and Renfrew and opposite the town of Clydebank.
The Paisley Canal line is a branch railway line in Scotland running between Glasgow and Paisley. The line currently terminates at Paisley Canal railway station, although it previously continued through Paisley West station, near Ferguslie, to Elderslie junction where it met and crossed under the main Glasgow and South Western Railway line running from Paisley Gilmour Street station to Johnstone, and beyond. After Elderslie, the line terminated at North Johnstone, however another junction allowed services from the Paisley Canal line to continue onto the Bridge of Weir Railway and Greenock and Ayrshire Railway to the latter's terminus at Greenock Princes Pier.
Renfrewshire or the County of Renfrew is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The lieutenancy area covers the three modern council areas of Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire, and this area is occasionally termed Greater Renfrewshire to distinguish it from the modern council area called Renfrewshire. The historic county additionally included territory on the south-western edge of Glasgow which was gradually transferred to the administrative area of the city as it grew.
The Dalry and North Johnstone Line was a branch of the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, Scotland, connecting the stations in Elderslie and Dalry via a route running parallel to the existing line built by the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway. This provided additional line capacity for Ayrshire Coast and Kilmarnock services. The loop line was used for passenger services until the mid-1960s, when it was closed by the Beeching Axe. The majority of the line's trackbed has since been absorbed into the Sustrans National Cycle Network.
Elderslie railway station was a railway station serving the west of Elderslie, Scotland, originally as part of the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway.
St Benedict's High School is a Catholic high school in Linwood, Renfrewshire, in the west of Scotland.
Renfrewshire Law Centre, or RLC, was a West Scottish local community-based non-For-Profit law centre that offered services to the people of Renfrewshire and surrounding areas of West Central Scotland, often free of charge.
Renfrewshire South is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering parts of the council areas of Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It forms one of ten constituencies in the West Scotland electoral region, which also elects seven additional members to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Auchenbathie, Auchinbathie Tower or rarely Barcraigs Tower is a ruined fortification, a tower house, once held by the Wallace Clan of Elderslie, situated in Renfrewshire, Parish of Lochwinnoch, Scotland. The spelling used varies greatly and "Auchenbathie" will be used here as the standard spelling. The pronunciation locally is "Auchenbothy", the same as a Victorian mansion in Kilmacolm; no connection is known.
Renfrewshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, formally established in 1996 to succeed the Renfrew district within the Strathclyde region, both of which were abolished; the headquarters are at Paisley.
The 2022 Renfrewshire Council elections took place on 5 May 2022, as part of the 2022 Scottish local elections on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local authorities were up for election. The election used the 12 wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 and last changed as a result of the 2015-16 Boundary Commission review, with 43 councillors being elected. Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the STV electoral system.
Johnstone Harp Football Club was a football club based in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, in Scotland.