The members of Largs Probus Club were this week treated to a whirlwind tour of nearly 900 years of Paisley Abbey history. The speaker was well qualified to tell the story, a guide in the Abbey and currently holding the office of Deputy Session Clerk, David Davidson had also been a GP in the town for thirty years, and was a first cousin (several times removed) of Paisley’s greatest poet, Robert Tannahill.
Beginning way back before the existence of any sort of town, Dr. Davidson told how just twelve monks and their Prior of the Cluniac order established a Priory on the site in the mid-12th century, brought north from their monastery in Shropshire by Walter fitz Alan, a Breton knight who had been granted lands in Renfrewshire.
The fitz Alan family were to play a major role both in the history of Paisley Abbey and the Scottish royal lineage. They were granted the hereditary office of High Steward in Scotland. ‘Steward’ mutated into ‘Stewart’, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Building work began in the 1160s with the Priory being founded in 1163. Not everyone was happy with Walter and his monastic plans, and Somerled of the Isles led a naval force up the Clyde resulting in the 1164 ‘Battle of Renfrew’ (no, I’d never heard of it either). Somerled was killed, the fitz Alans went from strength to strength, and Paisley Priory – it was not granted Abbey status till 1245, took shape.
To say the building suffered a chequered history is something of an understatement.
The first, 12th century phase of building created what was probably a fairly simple structure in the Norman / Romanesque style. The second phase developed the building into something more ambitious, and the third phase of the 1300s basically entailed bringing it back into some sort of order after being badly knocked about by the invading English forces.
By the mid 1400s things were on a fairly even keel, money was available, and Paisley Abbey became a suitably grand and impressive edifice…….till 1497, when a catastrophic fire destroyed the building.
Only the nave was rebuilt, and with the Reformation leaving little appetite for abbey rebuilding, Paisley Abbey sat in ruins for three hundred years, with the threat of total demolition very real in the late 18th century.
Some attempts at restoration were made during the 19th century, then at the end of the century renowned architect Robert Rowand Anderson declared that he could fully restore the abbey. He couldn’t. Peter MacGregor Chalmers took on the challenge, but world war one stymied his work. Finally in the 1920s Robert Lorimer created the magnificent building that we see today.
Very little of the early building remains, but when you enter the abbey through the south-east processional door, you are walking through the same door that the Cluniac monks would have passed through nearly 900 years ago.
Dr. Davidson concluded his talk by drawing attention to the connections between Paisley Abbey and the town of Largs, from pre-Reformation days when the church and its lands in Largs belonged to the Paisley monks, and more recently the Clark family of Paisley thread mills fame, with John Clark gifting the Clark Memorial Church to the town.
Our very own Paisley Buddie Frank Scott delivered the vote of thanks.
Largs Probus Club will next meet on Wednesday 17th July at 10am when Julie Bennet will speak on Arranging Holidays.
Men over the age of 50 who are retired, or nearing retirement, can attend three meetings as a guest before deciding whether to become a Club member. Please use our Contact Form if you wish to attend as a guest, or to enquire about joining.