Johnstone

Johnstone (Baile Eòin in Scottish Gaelic) is a town in Renfrewshire, Scotland, three miles west of neighbouring Paisley. Johnstone lies on the Black Cart Water a tributary of the River Clyde. Industry in the town was once based on three ‘M’s: Mining, Mills and Machine tools. Population estimated at 18,000 (approx)

Johnstone was built in 1782 to accommodate the mills of landowner George Houstoun. The town centre was designed on a formal grid pattern with two civic squares, Houston Square and Ludovic Square, which have been extensively restored in recent years and the town continues to improve. Johnstone is a fine example of a thriving post industrial Scottish town. Houston Square boasts a bandstand, a welcome and unusual feature now in town centres.

Johnstone has expanded drastically over the past 20th century with the building of several housing estates. It shares it's borders with Elderslie to the east; Linwood and Brookfield to the north; Kilbarchan and Howwood to the west and the Glennifer Braes to the south

At one time it was the fastest growing town in Scotland with more than 20 mills in operation. Johnstone is a lively centre with many good shops, bars and restaurants, as well as sports facilities and a modern swimming pool.

Johnstone was home of globally-renowned machine tool factories such as John Lang, Alban, Loudon's, Clifton and Baird, Craig and Donald, Thomas Shanks, Davie and Horne, and Ferguson's, as well as the flax-spinning mills of Finlayson and Bousfield and William Paton's thread-manufacturing works. Stewart's Mill was engulfed by flames in 1828.

Famous Johnstone people include poet Alexander McLachlan, who was born at the Brig in 1818 and who emigrated to North America where he was revered as the Robert Burns of Canada. John Fraser, the 19th century Radical schoolmaster and political reformer, lived at nearby Newfield House and used revolutionary teaching methods to educate young children at his George Street school. Sir William Arrol worked as a boy at the Johnstone mills before becoming the architect of the Forth Road Bridge and the Tower Bridge in London.

For an account on housing in Johnstone:
ukhousing.wikia.com/wiki/Johnstone