
Photograph by
Thomas Annan
The building was designed for Sir Peter Coats
by Charles Wilson and built from 1850 to 1852. It
was extended by Hippolyte Jean Blanc for
Archibald Coats in 1881. The mansion was
gifted to Paisley Corporation under the will of
Mr WH Coats and in 1931, following the death of
his wife, the council became owners after all the
furniture and effects in the building were sold
privately. The building was used to provide a
home for children, but it was destroyed by fire
in 1952 . Sir Peter was a
founder partner of the firm of J. & P. Coats.
The land of Woodside was first recorded as having
belonged to Walter Fitzallan, High Steward of
Scotland in 1208. It is was situated to the east
of what is now Woodside Crematorium close to King
Street.
__ Sir Peter Coats
Members of Paisley's famous Coats
family, Peter and Thomas took over the running of
their father's Ferguslie threadworks, J and P
Coats, in the 1830s. Under their leadership, the
company became one of the world's leading thread
manufacturers.
Sir Peter Coats (1808 - 1890) attended
Paisley grammar school and then college. He
intended to enter the church, but instead chose a
business career, receiving his business training
in the Glasgow office of John Fleming & Co,
East India Merchants, before running J and P
Coats. He remained active in the running of the
Ferguslie threadworks for 47 years. He and his
wife had 12 children and moved into their family
home of Woodside House in 1844. After his
wifes death, in 1877, he retired and moved
from the family home to his newly bought estate
of Auchendrane in South Ayrshire.
World War II Land Mine story
At the top of William Street there was a large
estate that was probabally at some point gifted
for mentally handicaped children. In those days
such children and young people were hidden away
from the general public and were not even talked
about. As a child we used to see what was the
equivalent of the modern mini bus come out of the
gates and pass down the Street with the children
looking out of the windows and that was all we
ever knew of them. Early on in the war they were
all evacuated somewhere else. The town
authorities decided to turn the estate into a
First Aid complex. Woodside House where the
children had lived was to be used as a
headquarters.
from Ramsay
Philip (1839) Views in Renfrewshire, with
historical and descriptive notices,.
WOODSIDE, the seat of Archibald Coats, Esq., is
situated a short distance west of Paisley, not
far from Ferguslie. The name was probably derived
from the proximity of the estate to Darskayt
Wood, which appears in early charters as a
boundary. A large tract of land, including the
portion now known as Woodside, was granted to the
Monks of Paisley in 1208, by Walter Fitzallan,
High Steward of Scotland; and they retained
possession of it till Reformation times. John
Hamilton, Abbot of Paisley, feued the greater
part of this land in 1445, granting a charter to
John Stewart, kindly tenant in Woodside, of
"All and Whole the twenty shilling lands of
Woodside, with the New Yaird of the same and
pertinents; reserving a public way through the
whole lands of Woodside,, from the public way as
far as the wood of Darskayt."
The estate remained in the hands of the Stewart
family till 1680, when it was sold to Ezekiel
Montgomrie, Sheriff-Depute of Renfrewshire. By
him the property was disponed, in 1688, to Thomas
Crawford of Cartsburn, father of George Crawford
the historian; and Woodside became the possession
of his second son, Hugh Crawford. The, latter was
married to a niece of Sir George Maxwell of
Pollok; and his only surviving children were
three daughters, who sold the property, in 1750,
to Robert Shedden, merchant in Paisley. Woodside
was acquired, in 1846, by Sir Peter Coats, from
the trustees of John Shedden, second son of
Robert Shedden of Woodside. The mansion was built
shortly afterwards by Sir Peter Coats, and is now
the residence of his son.
Sir Peter Coats has long been associated with
Paisley as one of the partners of the firm of J.
& P. Coats, thread manufacturers there. In
conjunction with his brother, the late Thomas
Coats, Esq., of Ferguslie (see ante Ferguslie),
he has made many munificent donations to
Paisley,-one of the most remarkable being the
Free Public Library and Museum, which was founded
by him in 1869. His public services were
acknowledged by Her Majesty conferring the honour
of knighthood upon him on 9th July, 1869. Sir
Peter Coats resides now at Old Auchendrane in
Ayrshire, of which county he is a
Deputy-Lieutenant.
The country around Woodside and Ferguslie was
a favourite haunt of Robert Tannahill, and he has
recorded the pleasure which he experienced there
in these lines:
Delighted Delighted I stray by the fairy
Woodside,
Where the dewdrops the crow flowers adorn,
And Nature, arrayed in her mid-summer's pride,
sweetly smiles to the smile of the morn.
Ye dark waving plantings, ye green shady bowers,
Your charms every varying I view;
My soul's dearest transports, my happiest hours,
Have owed half their pleasures to you."
Tannahill's earliest years were spent in his
father's cottage, in Queen Street, Paisley, which
was in the immediate neighbourhood of Ferguslie
and Woodside.
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