Bishopton


Renfrewshire

The Village Store, Bishopton
©2022 Gazetteer for Scotland

The Village Store, Bishopton

A small dormitory town overlooking the Clyde estuary 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Paisley, Bishopton grew from a village of less than 300 inhabitants in 1959 following the development of rail and road links with Glasgow and almost doubled in size in the 2010s following the redevelopment of the former Royal Ordnance Factory for housing. The town benefits from a primary school, health centre, a community centre, sports and social club, bowling green, rugby ground, two churches and Bishopton Railway Station (which opened in 1841).

There was once a tyre factory here, but most notable was the Royal Ordnance Factory, built in 1937 to utilise the expertise in munitions manufacture established in the First World War at the nearby Georgetown Filling Factory which employed over 10,000 workers in 1917. The Ordnance Factory closed in 2002.

The lands nearby, owned by the Bishopric of Glasgow in the 14th Century, were later held by the Brisbane family and, from 1703, by the Lords of Blantyre. Notable buildings include Bishopton House (17th-century, recast 1916-20 and now renamed Cora House Learning and Conference Centre), Drums (1770, repaired 1898-1900 for the Lithgow ship-building family), Formakin (1903) by Robert Lorimer and now within a country park, and Dargavel House (16th-century).

The remains of a Roman fort were discovered to the northwest of the town in 1949.


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