Pollokshaws, a town and a quoad sacra parish in the civil parish of Eastwood, Renfrewshire. The town, popularly known as the Shaws, is on the White Cart, where it is joined by Auldhouse Burn, and has a station on the Glasgow, Barrhead, and Kilmarnock railway, 3 miles SSW of Glasgow. With a pleasant situation in the midst of an undulating and fertile tract of country, it is a seat of manufacturing industry. A printfield, one of the earliest in Scotland, was established in 1742, and bleaching and handloom weaving, which were introduced soon after, were long extensively carried on. A tannery for the manufacture of chamois leather, which was begun in 1782, and was the earliest in Scotland, did not prosper. A cotton mill, erected about the end of last century, was the first in Scotland lighted with gas. Calico printing, which was long carried on, having declined, turkey-red dyeing took its place, and was vigorously carried on till 1837, when it was given up, and since then the staple industries have been cotton-spinning, power-loom weaving, bleachfields, print-works, paper-mills, and iron-foundries. The bridge over the Cart dates from 1654, but it has since been widened and repaired. The town-house, with its spire, and the trades' hall, do not call for particular notice. The quoad sacra parish church, originally Auldfield chapel of ease, in King Street, was built in 1840. Eastwood parish church, on the SW, built in 1862-63 at a cost of £3500, is a good Early English structure with 1050 sittings, nave and transepts, and a tower and spire 130 feet high at the W end. It superseded an older church of 1781, and was reopened in March 1877, after improvements, including a three-light stained window, new choir seats, etc. There are also two Free churches in King Street and Rosendale Road, a U.P. church, an Original Secession church, and the Roman Catholic church of St Mary Immaculate (1865; 800 sittings; redecorated 1884), but none of them call for particular notice. Four schools-the Academy, public, infant, and Roman Catholic-with respective accommodation for 700, 471, 150, and 327 pupils, had (l884) an average attendance of 352, 362, 123, and 269, and grants of £355, 19s., £299, 3s., £87, 8s., and £233, 17s. 6d. The town was erected into a burgh of barony by Crown charter in 1814, the council consisting of a provost, a bailie, and six councillors, being elected by all inhabitants paying £4 of rent and upwards; but the municipal government is now carried on by the commissioners appointed under the General Police and Improvement Act. Water is supplied from the Glasgow waterworks; and gas is provided from works carried on by a joint-stock company. There is a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, under Glasgow, branch offices of the Clydesdale and Commercial Banks, agencies of 8 insurance companies, a public library, established in 1844, an abstainers' hall, a young men's literary and mutual improvement association, a trades' friendly society, a district Sabbath School Union, a tract society, a destitute sick society, and some other institutions. A sheriff small debt court is held on the second Friday of every month, and a justice of peace court on the first Tuesday of every month. Pop. of town (1831) 4627, (1861) 7648, (1871) 8921, (1881) 9363, of whom 5056 were females, and 6402 were in Pollokshaws quoad sacra parish. Houses (1881) 2058 inhabited, 170 vacant, 9 building.—Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.
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