Dr. Dan Coughlan,
Curator of Textiles,
Paisley Museum
September 2015
Handloom Tartan Weaving in Paisley
There is ample evidence to show that Paisley was one of the leading producers of tartan in Scotland during the nineteenth century. Before the term ‘tartan’ came into general use, fabrics with matching stripes in warp and weft were known as ‘checks’. The Glasgow writer, Duncan, in 1807, stated that these fabrics were manufactured in great quantities, from all different materials, especially from woolen, silk and cotton.[1] At that time, about one quarter of the weavers in Paisley were working for Glasgow manufacturers.[2] It is not unreasonable to assume therefore, that some of these Paisley weavers were producing checks or tartans in the early nineteenth century. As Paisley, at that time, was known for cotton and silk weaving it is likely that these checks were woven in these fibres rather than in wool.
According to several contemporary authors, the woolen trade was introduced into paisley in the 1830s and that this consisted mainly of clan and fancy checks made into long and square shawls and piece goods for dresses.[3] In 1842, the Renfrewshire Reformer reported that many of the Paisley manufacturers had taken up the manufacture of tartans in all their different varieties. In the same year, Queen Victoria, in an effort to help the Paisley weavers during a slump in the trade, purchased a representative selection of seventeen shawls from various local manufacturers. The records show that one of these was a tartan shawl. In 1843 The Penny Magazine also noted that plaid and tartan were produced in Paisley. There is evidence to show that skill of the local weavers in producing tartan was recognized throughout the Scottish woollen trade at this time; Henry Ballantyne, the well known manufacturer of checks and tartans in Galashiels, unable to recruit sufficient local labour to meet demand, sent some of his yarn to Paisley to be woven into tartan.[4] In 1846, the writer of an article in Hogg’s Instructor, observed in Robert Kerr’s factory in Thread Street, Paisley, ‘over thirty plain looms in full operation upon tartan etc.’. Ten or twelve tartan shawls could be produced on each loom in one week. In one factory alone in Paisley, therefore, around three hundred tartan shawls were produced every week. The tartans for ladies were made in endless combinations of colours and in exceedingly fine texture.[5]
At the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 at least four Paisley firms displayed tartans woven in the town. In contrast to this, only three firms from Tillocoultry had tartan on display. In the same exhibition, Thomas Hutchison from Paisley had on display a device which he invented for creating and displaying striped, checked and tartan patterns. The advantage of this invention was the ease in which a great variety of tartan patterns could be designed in full detail before putting them on the loom.[6] In an article in Household Words in 1852, the author wrote that there were three types of shawl produced in Paisley – the woven shawl with the Paisley pattern, the printed shawl and the tartan or checked shawl, woven in squares or lengths to cover the shoulders. Five years later, in 1857, John Parkhill in his History of Paisley, stated that the weaving of tartan shawls had become a large trade in Paisley, next in importance to the weaving of Paisley shawls. The superior skill and taste of the Paisley weavers, particularly in fancy goods, and the advantage of first rate designing, enabled the local manufacturers to produce much finer and more ornamental tartan shawls than those manufactured in Galashiels and Sterlingshire. Fig. 1 shows a figured tartan shawl from the collections in Paisley museum. In the same year, the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, stated that the wool for the finest kinds of tartans and plaids woven in Paisley was imported from Australia and Germany.
Fig. 1 Figured Tartan from Paisley
(Courtesy of Paisley Museum and Art Galleries)
By the 1860s nearly all of the Paisley shawl manufacturers were producing woollen goods, mostly tartans, woven on hand looms. These were not only diverse but also of very high quality. At the International Exhibition in 1862, the local firm of J.Morgan and Co. Paisley. received an award for a ‘collection of woolen tartans of very superior make, most perfect in colouring and regularity in texture’.[7] In 1867 it was estimated that there from 800 to 1000 weavers in Paisley employed on these fabrics. In addition to the weavers in the town, Paisley manufacturers employed many weavers in other districts. There were 800 weavers in Kilbarchan and about another 100 in adjacent villages employed by Paisley houses, bringing the total to nearly 2000 weaving these goods. The number of weavers employed by Paisley manufacturers in producing tartan therefore, was greater than that in Stirling, Bannockburn, Tillicoultry and Alva at that time.[8] In 1869, to celebrate the laying of the memorial stone of Paisley museum, there was a procession of various trades through the town. The weavers carried standards bearing various types of shawls woven by them, one of which was a Stuart tartan Plaid.
As the Paisley shawl trade declined, the remaining weavers were employed for a number of years weaving tartan and fancy check plaids, shawls and shoulder handkerchiefs. In 1874 there were 622 plain weavers in Paisley, mostly engaged in weaving tartan, plain and check shawls. The sample book shown in fig.2, from the local manufacturing firm of Daniel Murray, Causeyside St. Paisley, gives some indication of the quantity and variety of tartan fabrics woven in the town in the late nineteenth century. Tartan weaving continued in Paisley until well into the twentieth century. It was not until 1941, that the last manufacturers employing handlooms in the town - one making tartans and the other making fur shawls – finally ceased trading. The author of an article in Scottish Woollens (1949), put it very simply: ‘tartans had been woven in Paisley prior to the introduction of the Paisley shawl and were continuously produced there until 1941’.
Fig.2.Sample Book of Daniel Murray showing tartan woven in Paisley
In the village of Kilbarchan, about five miles from Paisley, the last colony of handloom tartan weavers in Scotland was still working in the 1930s. There were twenty weavers in the village, each producing from seven to ten yards of tartan per day. One of these, Willie Meikle, was said to be the only man in Scotland, perhaps in the world, who could weave two clan tartans at once – travel rugs with the husband’s tartan on one side and the wife’s on the other.[9] He wove tartan for the Royal family, and in 1938 he demonstrated his skills at the Empire Exhibition in London. In 1951 he attended the Toronto Exhibition in Canada. Tartan weaving on handlooms in Kilbarchan eventually ceased in the early 1950s. One of the last tartan looms in Kilbarchan was donated to Paisley museum where it was used for demonstrating weaving tartan in the 1950s. Fig 3 shows the last piece of Tartan, the Royal Stuart, woven on the loom, possibly in Paisley museum. This loom is now on display in the Sma’Shot Cottage in Paisley where it is operated on certain occasions to demonstrate hand loom weaving.
Fig.3 Royal Stuart tartan woven on loom from Kilbarchan
The evidence presented above strongly suggests that Paisley, together with the surrounding villages in Renfrewshire, was one of the leading districts in Scotland for the production of hand woven tartan in terms of quantity, quality, variety and duration of the trade, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This paper is concerned only with handwoven tartan. There were, of course powerloom factories in Paisley, also producing tartan, which further enhances the importance of the town as a centre of tartan production. This aspect require further investigation.
References
Anonymous, Paisley – the Shawl Trade. Hogg’s Weekly Instructor, 1846, Edinburgh. (The author is thought to be the Paisley writer, David Gilmour)
Anonymous, The Shawl Manufacture of Paisley, in Sharpes London Magazine, March 6th 1847
Bremner, David. The Industries of Scotland, 1869, Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh.
Brown, Robert, Paisley Poets with Brief Memoirs of them and selections from their poetry. 1889, J. &J. Cook Paisley
Calder, Jenni. Paisley: A Textile Town, 1986, in The Enterprising Scot published by The National Museums of Scotland.
Cross, William, Descriptive sketch of changes in the style of Paisley Shawls. 1872, The text of a lecture delivered in Paisley Museum in January 1872.
Duncan, John, Essays on the Art of Weaving, 1808, Glasgow.
Gulvin Clifford, The Tweedmakers, A history of the Scottish Fancy Woollen Industry 1600 – 1914, David & Charles:Newton Abbot, 1973
Household Words, a weekly Journal, edited by Charles Dickens, Vol V, August 152
Parkhill, John. The History of Paisley, 1857, Robert Stewart, Paisley
Scottish Woollens,
Foster, Peter Le Neve, Isler, John Fredric, Reports by the Juries of the International Exhibition of 1862. London
Knight, Charles (Ed). The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Vol 12, 1843 The Popular Encyclopaedia: Being a General Dictionary of Arts, Vol. 5
Sharpes London MagazineStewart, A.M. The History and Romance of the Paisley Shawl, 1946, Paisley.
Taylor, William, An Answewr to Mr. Carlile’s Sketches of Paisley, 1809, Stephen Young, Paisley. (A pamphlet now hels in Paisley Museum Archives)
The Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, 1857, Edinburgh and London.Ed. John Marius
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland, Town and Parishes of Paisley, 1845
Whyte, D. The Makers of Paisley Shawls. Address given to Anthropology Section of the British Association, Stirling, 4/9/1974
[1] Duncan, Essays on the Art of Weaving, 1807, p. 84
[2] Taylor, W., An Answer to Mr. Carlile’s Sketches of Paisley, 1809, p. 17
[3] See, for examle, The Popular Encyclopaedia, 1836
[4] Gulvin, C. The Tweedmakers, 1973, p. 88
[5] Sharpes London Magazine, March 6th 1847
[6] The Official Catalogue of the Great Exhibition, 1851, p.80
[7] Report by the Juries on the 1862 International Exhibition, London.
[8] Bremner, The Industries of Scotland, 1869, pp. 145 - 213
[9] Morton, In Scotland Again,
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