Ralston
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| Ralston | |
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| Missing image RenfrewshireRalston.png Image:RenfrewshireRalston.png Ralston's location locally and nationally | |
| Demographics | |
| Population: | 4,507 (1991 Census) |
| Administration | |
| Local Goverment Region: | Renfrewshire |
| Nation: | Scotland |
| Geography | |
| Traditional County: | Renfrewshire |
| Former Region: | Strathclyde |
| Grid reference: | Template:Gbmappingsmall |
| Post Office and Telephone | |
| Post Town: | Paisley |
| Postcode: | PA1 3** |
| Dialling Code: | 0141 |
Ralston (Baile Raghnaill in Scottish Gaelic) is a small, suburban settlement in Renfrewshire, Scotland, bordering onto the eastern edge of the royal burgh of Paisley. The district straddles the A761 (formerly the A737), the main dual-carriageway between Renfrewshire and the City of Glasgow.
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History
The estates of Ralston
The modern settlement of Ralston takes its name from the ancient feudal estates of Ralphistoun (Ralph's settlement), named after the younger son of the Earl of Fife, to whom the lands were gifted in the early 12th century. The feudal estates included the lands of Auldtoun (now Oldhall), Hullhead, Barshaw, Whitehaugh, Byres, Honeybog, Pennylee, Maylee and Ralstonwood.
When the use of surnames was adopted in the Scottish Lowlands, the descendants of the Earl's younger son named themselves 'Ralston' after the estates. The lands were sold in 1704 by Gavin Ralston, of that ilk, to John, Earl of Dundonald, who conferred them on his daughter, Lady Anne Cochrane, when she married James, the fifth Duke of Hamilton. Their son sold Ralston in 1755 to William MacDowal of Castle Semple, an eminent Glasgow merchant and one of the founders of the Ship Bank there. His son, William of Garthland and Castle Semple, sold Ralston in 1800 to William Orr, son of a Paisley manufacturer who, with his brother, had made a fortune in the manufacture of linens in Ireland. Three years earlier, he had acquired from the Earl of Glasgow, part of the lands of Ingliston, on which he built an elegant manor house. Upon his purchase of the estates, he merged all of them into one, which he called Ralston, and his manor house became the Mansion of Ralston. In 1840, James Richardson, a Glasgow merchant, secured the lands. His son, Thomas Richardson, enlarged the mansion and increased the size of the estate.
The Ralston estates were eventually carved up and sold as farmland in the late 1800s. The ruins of Ralston Mansion were demolished in the 1930s, however part of the original stonework forms an annex to the club house at Ralston Golf Club. The East and West Lodges on the Glasgow Road were the original gate houses to the estates.
The planned village
In the early 1800s, the development of the textile industry in Renfrewshire resulted in the increase in road traffic across the county. The main road running through the Ralston estates was nothing more than a narrow dirt track. The original road ran from Paisley, through the then-village of Williamsburgh and across the tops of the Byres, Barshaw and Honeybog hills. When a programme of long distance road construction was introduced, a new road was built, snaking through the low-lying ground at the foot of the hills. The original track later fell into disuse and the new route became what is now the Glasgow Road.
Villas began to appear along Glasgow Road in the late 1800s, mostly in what is now the Oldhall district near Barshaw Park. A village-proper was established in the valley between the hills of Bathgo and Honeybog in the early 1930s as post-war residential development increased. Developers planned Ralston as a leafy haven for wealthy Paisley textile merchants, wishing to raise their families in a more rural setting beyond the burgh's boundaries.
Most of the area's original farmhouses were demolished to make way for the fledgling village. These included:
- Oldhall (at the far end Oldhall Road, which was actually originally the path leading up to the farmhouse)
- Rylees (which sat at the bend of Atholl Crescent - its path coincides roughly with School Road, leading down to Penilee Road, which like Glasgow Road, was a well-established track)
- South Hillington (the most recent victim of Ralston's expansion, which lay in ruin until 1973 when it was finally consigned to the history books to make way for Ossian Avenue)
- South Ingliston (which lay in what is now Ralston Golf Course, just beyond the bend of Bathgo Avenue)
Geography
Ralston is situated primarily on a series of south-facing hillsides, overlooking the Gleniffer Braes and the Bullwood plantation. The district merges incongruously with the sandstone villas of Paisley to its west. Here, Barshaw Park provides a convenient boundary between the district and its larger neighbour. To the east, Ralston's painted stone cottages and their proudly-maintained front gardens define the Glasgow Road all the way to the Renfrewshire border and beyond, merging unobtrusively with the cottages of neighbouring Crookston. Ralston's northern edge is defined by South Arkleston farm at the foot of Honeybog Hill; its southern extent is limited by Ralston Golf Course and the leeward side of Bathgo Hill.
To the north, the district's official (ward) boundary extends beyond Honeybog Hill, to the main Paisley-to-Glasgow railway line, which forms the boundary between North and South Arkleston farms. To the south, Ralston's 'jurisdiction' takes in the whole of Ralston Golf Course and extends beyond the Paisley Canal railway line to the River Cart at Ross Hall Mains farm.
The boundary at the north means it comes close to the large out of town retail development of Braehead Shopping Centre which includes the IKEA in Glasgow, just over the M8 at junction 26.
Administration
Despite its close proximity to Paisley, Ralston has always remained proudly independent of its larger neighbour, and until 1974, formed the most-part of the Hurlet and Oldhall district of the County of Renfrew.
In a local referendum, held in 1995 ahead of the planned abolition of the Strathclyde Region and the partition of Renfrewshire into three separate local governments, the residents of Ralston voted overwhelmingly against leaving the new Paisley-based (and Labour-dominated) Renfrewshire authority to become an annex of the newly-partitioned (and Conservative-run) East Renfrewshire. Despite East Renfrewshire's assurance that a local government office would be set up within Ralston, locals were concerned that the district would be no more than a remote outpost, linked to the rest of the authority by a narrow strip of countryside with no direct road or public transport links connecting the two. By far the most persuasive reason against annexation, however, was that Ralston School was (and is) one of the two feeder primaries, serving Paisley's Grammar School. Parents were concerned that if the district were to leave the jurisdiction of Renfrewshire's education authority, local children would be prevented from attending not only Ralston's closest secondary school, but one of Scotland's finest in the state sector.
Ralston is now administered as a local government ward of the Renfrewshire authority. In terms of local democracy, the district is represented by the Ralston Community Council, which lobbies the Renfrewshire authority on matters of local significance. It is now part of the new Paisley and Renfrewshire North constituancy from 2005 with places like Bridge of Weir, Erskine and Renfrew at the Westminister elections. Previously it was in the Paisley North constituancy.
Today, mainly as a result of postal addressing and local government reorganisation, many newcomers to Ralston are unaware that they do not technically live in Paisley. Nowadays, the only obvious, albeit subtle, reminder of Ralston's separate identity is the fact that on crossing into Renfrewshire on the A761 Glasgow Road, drivers pass a "Welcome to Renfrewshire" sign a whole kilometer before they pass a sign welcoming them to Paisley.
Ralston's future, however, seems very likely to be as a middle-class Paisley suburb.
Trivia
- Scottish actors, Tom Conti and Gerard Butler are both originally from Ralston. Scottish interior designer John Amabile is from Ralston.
- It is said that the courtyard of Oldhall Lodge is haunted by the last woman who was hanged there for witchcraft. Dalfoil Court is also apparently haunted.
- The Ralston Primary School uniform includes a scarlet tie in honour of a visit by Queen Elizabeth (the former Queen Mother) in the 1940s, it being her favourite colour.
- Today, Penilee Road runs northwards past the Arkleston farms and turns sharply to the right to avoid the M8 motorway as it enters Hillington Estate. At this bend, the road used to veer slightly to the left and continued through to Renfrew, where it became what is now Newmains Road.
- Up until 1966, what is now the M8 motorway between Hillington and Arkleston was the runway of Renfrew International Airport, which closed in that year, following the opening of the new Glasgow (Abbotsinch) Airport slightly further west. Hillington Estate was actually the airport engineering works, hence it being (until recently) the location of the Rolls Royce aero engine plant.