Renfrewshire Heritage

30/05/2025

See the history around you - Discover Paisley & Renfrewshire

Our next family history cafe is on the 7th June at 10am in BLEND Coffee Lounge, Paisley. For Junes meeting we will be considering how local church records can help our family history research before and after compulsory registration in 1855.

See the link below for fully information.

https://theurbanhistorian.co.uk/product/family-history-cafe-7th-june2025-10am/

Our June Family Cafe Session

29/05/2025

The Radical Rising of 1820 - Trial papers are now online
See https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/virtual-volumes/volume-images/volume_data-JC21-5-1/REX01498?image_number=1 for Renfrewshire

Commission of Oyer and Terminer, signed 29 May 1820.

This commission granted authority to prosecute those involved in the Radical Rising of 1820.

The trial papers from prosecutions relating to the unrest are available to view online 👇

bit.ly/NRSRadicals1820

25/05/2025

The headstone of Rev James Hutchison, minister of Kilallan Kirk, Houston, ordained 1648 and died in office in 1706. It is said that James played a part in investigating the allegations made during the Bargarran witchhunt of 1696/97, though his name doesn't appear in the trail documentation.

23/05/2025

UPDATE - All our events will be held INDOORS tomorrow (Saturday 24th May) due to the predicted rain! ☔️

🎉♟️Do you fancy challenging an International Master on a giant chess board this Saturday?

We've just had news that Andrew Greet, the Scottish Chess Champion, will be attending our FREE event on Saturday. Andrew will be challenging people at Topple The King, and might take on a few folk simultaneously at Speed Chess.

Family Friendly Activities
Saturday 24 May
12:00 - 14:00

Young people can try out Topple The King, and we'll also have standard chess sets and Lewis Chess pieces!

Topple The King is a fun way of playing the classic game, which uses a special set of dice, and a slight tweak to the rules, to produce a chess game which is fast, frantic, and above all, fun!

Tours of the Govan Stones available all day.

Date: Saturday 24 May
Time: 12:00 noon - 14:00
Location: Govan Old, 866 Govan Road, Glasgow, G51 3UU

🎨 Thank you to Simon Dickie for the colour art, and to Dr Tom Horne for the montage of Simon's art and the Topple The King graphic!

Chess in Glasgow Chess.com Chess ON What's On Glasgow Visit Glasgow

21/05/2025

Hello!

Did you you know that The Urban Historian is on Trip Advisor? The Urban Historian includes Renfrewshire Ancestors and Renfrewshire Heritage

If you have been on any of my heritage walks or attended any of my talks or history cafes in the past, it would be great if you could leave a review on Trip Advisor. As I continue to slowly return to heritage walks and talks any reviews will be extremely helpful.
Thanks, Srephen

This is the version of our website addressed to speakers of English in the United States. If you are a resident of another country or region, please select the appropriate version of Tripadvisor for your country or region in the drop-down menu.

20/05/2025

Starting with Lunch at Paisley's well-known Allan's Fish and Chip Restaurant on Storie Street, we then explore the history of the town.

16/05/2025

This week’s “Then” image shows what Underwood Road looked like in May 1961. J. Wishall, baker shop is on the corner of Galloway Street just along from St. James’ Church. https://tinyurl.com/38knvdff

Image description: Showing business premises below housing, a church spire, railway bridge and people walking along the street.

16/05/2025

Our May Local History Cafe Session

13/05/2025

All of our Family History and Local History Cafe sessions for May, June and July are now available to book online. Our July History Cafe session is a week later than usual due to Sma' Shot Day on Sat 5th July.
You can book all events on our booking website at
https://theurbanhistorian.co.uk/book-an-event/
You can discover more local history at DiscoverRenfrewshireHeritage.com or more about our Family History services at renfrewshireancestors.uk

Heritage Walks There are currently no Heritage Walks planned. History Café History Talks There are currently no History Talks planned.

13/05/2025

Did you know Andrew Coats wrote his own history of the family and the early history of J & P Coats?

I republished his orginal version a few years ago and you can get it on Amazon as a paperback or for your kindle. The original version was privatly published for family and friends, so not many copies exist.

From the Cottage to the Castle was published privately by Andrew Coats in 1892 telling the history of the family and the story of the growth of J & P Coats, cotton thread manufactures in Paisley Scotland. "If the following sketch should fall into the hands of a single member of a future generatio...

13/05/2025

Update 16th May - one place has become available for tomorrow mornings history cafe. See below for detas and booking.

Hello all, we still have one place available for this Saturdays History Cafe in BLEND Coffee Lounge, Paisley . This month we are looking at the Cotton Thread Mills of Paisley.. We will of course look. at Coats and Clarks but the focus will be on the other manufactures that are always forgotton! We meet between 10 and 11.30am

See https://theurbanhistorian.co.uk/product/history-cafe-17th-may-2025-10am/ to grab rhe last place.

Our May Local History Cafe Session

08/05/2025