Day Two, 17 April 2013

Paisley is just a twenty minute drive from Glasgow City centre. The town once boasted the most highly skilled handloom weavers in Scotland, and later on, huge thread mills.  The town goes back to the 6th century when St Mirin founded a church there.   We spent the entire day in Paisley visiting Paisley Abbey, Paisley Museum, Sma Shot Cottages, and the Thread Mill Museum.

Dan Coughlan is the curator of the Paisley shawl collection. He showed us pattern books from the mid 19th century of paisley patterns. The first record of weaving in Paisley dates back to 1695. At that point they were weaving muslin and checkered linen.

Dan is a master weave. He has rebuilt and refurbished the jacquard and draw looms at the museum.

Lee and Dot examine a paisley shaw fom the handling collection.

We eat lunch and tour the Sma Shot Cottages.  Jane models how the paisley shawl was worn as an outer garment.

Nessie worked at a thread mill in Paisley for 6 years. She is holding a functioning hand crank sewing machine that the Anchor mill used as a promotional tool. 

The museum is run by volunteers, many who worked in the mills.

This is a much older section in the Paisley Abbey's choir. The choir was rebuilt in the 20th century.