| Bishopton - 200 years of History (at least) |
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Before reading this let me try and sort out the confusion about Erskine and Bishopton. In the past, Bishopton was situated in the "Parish of Erskine". Since the creation of Erskine new town we have been slowly changing the names that contain Erskine to Bishopton, i.e. Erskine Parish School became Bishopton Primary and at the turn of 1999 Erskine Parish Church became Bishopton Parish Church. The world famous, Erskine Golf Club is unlikely to change it's name due to international recognition, but it's in Bishopton.
The earliest signs of a community in the Bishopton area dates back to 3,300BC. However, it wasn't until 1840 that "
Bishopton" was born. There were instead two villages, one called Blackstown and the other Easter Rossland. When these villages combined we got the village we now know as Bishopton. So how did Bishopton get its name? Well, it seems that the when the Brisbane family lived here (famous family of years ago), their house was called "Bishopton House", there house is now a convent at the Greenock entrance to the village. When the two villages were merged they used the name of the house to name the village and as a result we now have Bishopton. Incidentally, the Brisbane family went to Australia, at some point, and founded a town with their name, has anyone been to Brisbane in Australia? (Thanks to this snippet go to a local historian)We did have a post office taking in three deliveries before Bishopton formed and in 1841 we got a railway station. The railway station had a big impact on the community. In 1916 a munitions factory was built, The Georgetown Filling Factory (now the ROF), employing some 3,300 people. It grew, one year later it had 10,220. In the 1930's it was renamed to the Royal Ordnance Factory, this was at the loss of a number of farms and excellent farming ground, they were purchased under a compulsory purchase order.
We were once but are no longer a farming community, though we are surrounded by farms, today's Bishopton is mainly made up of people who work in the Glasgow and Paisley area making us more of a commuting village, which in some ways, is a shame. The area had an excellent track record for breeding both horses and cattle. The Erskine Agricultural Society was the oldest society of its kind in the West of Scotland with cattle shows held here up until 1938.
Now we have a major worldwide manufacturer expanding, Compaq Computers, situated just outside the village, on Ferry road and the ROF is now looking shaky, personally I would prefer to have it open and here, the devil you know and all that stuff.
I've learned that if there is one constant in life it's that things will always change, whether it is for the better is down to us.
Stuart Duffy