Johnstone History Museum
Johnstone History Society • Scotland

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Johnstone's History
The Story of the Glasgow to Ardrossan Canal that only reached Johnstone
Ardrossan Canal and Railway By the late E.S.Nicoll, edited and contributed to Johnstone History Museum by Stuart Rankin. On October 2, 1903, the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald contained a paper on the above subject, read at Ardrossan by Clement F. Stretton of the Society of Engineers. Follow the link to the full story

The Canal

Johnstone - The “Cap of Liberty” and the “Radical Rising” by Angela Gillespie
The end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 brought economic depression and social unrest. In 1816 some 40,000 people attending a meeting in Glasgow Green to demand more representative government and an end to the Corn Laws which kept food prices high. The Industrial Revolution had affected hand-loom weavers who saw their wages slashed. Artisan workers sought action to reform what they saw as an uncaring government leading to demonstrations and protest. As industrial distress deepened, the demand for reform grew more insistent but the government only replied by measures of suppression. The French Revolution had produced a profound effect on political thought throughout the country - “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was an explosive slogan - with an appeal that carried across frontiers. It was hope to the underprivileged and oppressed but terror to those in power.

Read the whole story about how this "Radical Rising" affected Johnstone in Angela Gillespie's latest story.

The Story

The Brig O' Johnstone: a research article by Angela Gillespie
As is well known the Brig O’ Johnstone is shown on Blaeu’s map of the County of Renfrew, published in Amsterdam in 1654, the name being shown as “Ihonstoun,” this map surveyed by Timothy Pont about 1590.

Angela Gillespie has studied the events of the time. Follow the link for the exciting details.

The exciting details