Bleachfields of Paisley

[garydevine]

Hi,

Ive found in the 1881 census that my great great grandmother Elizabeth Daisley is living in Paisley but her parents and siblings are still back in Hamilton, she seems to be the eldest and only one to have moved home alone, she is only 17 at this point, she was born in Ireland and is said to be a lodger in the census and under her is also another girl called Elizabeth aged 16 from Hamilton. My theory is that both girls are friends and have moved together and are both living as lodgers with the Stewart family. Both girls are Bleachfield Workers and the head of the house Mr Stewart is a Woolen Dyer.

does anyone know what a bleachfield worker is and what there purpose was? and where the bleachfields might have been?

and does Mr Stewarts job relate to my great great grandmothers and her friend? I thought maybe because they stayed together their jobs would be related and would go to work together.

Gary

[Skoosh]

Gary,  bleaching cloth, originally done using urine? by the time in question it would be chemical bleach, the  laying the cloth out in a field for the sun. Linen in particular needs bleaching, the West of Scotland made a lot of linen but changed largely to cotton. A big input of Irish linen workers into the Scottish  textile industry post the Great Famine of the 1840's.
Skoosh.

[ev]

Hi ,

One of my lines were involved in bleaching on the outskirts of Dundee.
They lost a daughter after she fell into a vat of vitriol 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleachfield

ev

[anne_p]

My relatives owned one of these businesses: Lounsdale Bleach House in Paisley.
It was destroyed by fire in 1882 and did not re open.
The fire coincided with the start in decline in the Paisley Textile Industry as Paisley Patterned cloths/shawls were going out of fashion

[RJ_Paton]

An 1840 encyclopedia states that there were 7 "extensive" bleachfields in Paisley
Google Books - Penny Cyclopedia - Paisley

Although originally they were literally open fields where the material was stretched out for bleaching by the end of the 19th century many of these areas were enclosed or partially enclosed and within the mill confines.

Re fashions - the textile industry was extremely volatile and the Lounsdale Bleachfields feature in a sale on 14th November 1851 of all equipment "great and small" - presumably the then owners had gone bust

[garngad]

Hi gary I also have a few family members who worked the bleachfields in Paisley notably the foxbar bleachfields from the 1851 census and they were from the highlands Argyllshire and their is hundreds on the census majority from the highlands but also Irish and Renfrewshire.

[anne_p]

Hi Falkym
A son in my family, who was a grocer to trade, received a substantial inheritance on the death of his mother at 1852.
His mother did own property but does not seem to have owned a Bleach House.
At 1861, he was still a grocer, living elsewhere in Paisley
At 1871 he lives at Lounsdale House and has become the owner of Lounsdale Bleach House.

Lounsdale Bleach House was destroyed by fire in 1882 and this relative died in 1883.
His family definitely still resided at the main house for a few years, but all his children married and formed new occupations.

 I never found the 1851 sale article that you refer to but I wonder if you can find any info for me on another property ?
This same man  also owned the Globe Hotel in Paisley ( as far as I can tell he did not own the business, just the building)
He left it to his daughters in his 1883 will.
The daughters in question later moved to Ardrossan with their widowed mother.
The females in the family all died in Ayrshire. Most sons emigrated.

I could not find anything re the purchase or sale of the Globe Hotel.
There was nothing  significant to be found in Paisley Library on either the Hotel orThe Lands Of Lounsdale

Anne

[RJ_Paton]

There would appear to have been at least two buildings known as the Globe Hotel although possibly at different times. I remember back in the 1970's there was an old building accessed through School Wynd which fronted onto the High Street and where the faded paintwork still made reference to "The Globe".

An 1860 newspaper advert refers to Mr Tannahill's Globe Hotel, Paisley.

The 1880/81 Directory of Paisley lists Morrison's Globe Hotel at 11 High Street Paisley while the 1900/01 directory lists the Globe Hotel at 92 High Street Paisley owned by William Daniel.

[RJ_Paton]

I can find no reference to the Globe Hotel in the Newspapers between 1876 and 1884 however in 1872 there is an Advert for a Spirit businesss in the south Side of Glasgow put up for sale - applications to A Morrison Globe Hotel Paisley, proprietor.

In 1876 there is a job vacancy for a waiter at the Globe Hotel - applications to Mrs Morrison.

In 1884 (11th August) there is an advertisement for the "New Globe Hotel" proprietor Alexander Morrison.