Old Photographs Paisley Renfrewshire Scotland

Old photographs of Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. The Industrial Revolution based on the textile industry turned Paisley from a small market town to an important industrial town in the late 18th century. Its location attracted English mill owners; immigrants from Ayrshire and the Highlands poured in to a town that offered paying jobs to women and children. By the middle of the19th century weaving had become the town's principal industry. The Paisley weavers' most famous product were the shawls, which bore the Paisley Pattern made fashionable after being worn by a young Queen Victoria. The American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 cut off cotton supplies to the textile mills of Paisley. The mills in 1861 had a stock of cotton in reserve, but by 1862 there was large scale shortages and closures