'Greek' Thomson's architectural acquaintances: Peter Woodrow and family

Renfrewshire architect, builder, and committee man

The online Dictionary of Scottish Architects has this to say of Peter Woodrow:

Peter Woodrow was born in 1838 or 1839, the son of John Woodrow, farmer, and his wife Catherine King. He was a builder and architect and practised at 67 Renfield Street, Glasgow c.1876. Later he had an office in Kilmacolm. Woodrow died on 28 January 1917 at his home Westfield, Kilmacolm, survived by his wife, Jeannie Holmes.

The scanty entry understates the life and role of a man whose work and family contributed as much as anyone to the development and appearance of Kilmacolm and Bridge of Weir in the late 19th century.

Peter Woodrow’s family

John Woodrow (1801-1886), Peter’s father, first practised as a mason before becoming an arable farmer, and then a builder, busy enough by 1861 to give his Census entry as ‘Locher Mill. Occupation: ‘Farmer of 10 acres and Builder employing 7 Masons and 95 Labourers’. In 1863, for example, he was the mason for Campbell Douglas’s ‘Kilbarchan Female School’, and in 1872 provided the mason work for Kilbarchan United Presbyterian Church¹. Three years later, he obtained the sizeable (£1,000) masonry contract to extend Kilbarchan School (presumably the same building he had worked on in 1863)². One of his last jobs was to construct the manse for Bridge of Weir Established Church³.

John’s farming activities were successful enough for him to win prizes at the 1877 Kilbarchan Agricultural Society’s Show for his cattle, at which his eldest son, William, and two daughters won prizes for dairy produce. In 1881, he and William won more prizes⁴. For more than sixty years John was a member of the Lodge of St Barchan, serving as Treasurer and Master⁵.

Peter’s father was also interested in the development of Bridge of Weir, and not just as a builder: he attended an 1861 meeting to resuscitate the idea of ‘the formation of a railway connection with the Glasgow and South-Western railway [G&SWR], from near Johnstone to Bridge of Weir’, which had been proposed but abandoned some years before, and then became a shareholder⁶ (The line was achieved four years later, built by the independent Bridge of Weir Railway and subsequently taken over by the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) in 1865. Extended to Greenock, it gave the G&SWR access to the harbour facilities, enabling it to compete with the Caledonian Railway. Over time, use declined and the line closed in January 1983).

John Woodrow’s involvement with railway development seems to have continued: by the 1870s he was involved, possibly as a shareholder, with the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway, a collaboration between two companies operating the line between Glasgow Bridge Street station and Paisley (by 1873, Glasgow Bridge Street was about to be superseded by construction of the St Enoch and Central stations north of the Clyde)⁷.

John was also involved in local politics, joining a committee to elect the Tory Archibald Campbell (later 1st Baron Blythswood) as member for Renfrewshire in 1873; a decade later, Peter Woodrow would join a committee to elect Campbell again, this time for the West Renfrewshire constituency.

Personal and professional life

Peter (1838-1917) was the youngest of six sons, with four sisters, most of whom appear to have survived to adulthood. We do not know where Peter Woodrow trained; he may have picked up most of what he learned as a mason and builder from his father and family members, although only a nephew, son of his eldest brother, ever seems to have described himself as an ‘architect’, of which more later.

He first comes to public notice as a student successfully responding to questions in a ‘Literary Competition Scheme’ for entrants from Kilbarchan, Houston, Kilmacolm and Lochwinnoch on Thomson’s History of Scotland and the life and writings of St Paul⁸.

Peter’s appearance in Glasgow was short-lived: in mid-1874, he appeared in the Post Office Directory as ‘mechanical engineer and architect’, with an office at 28 Bath Street, but living at the family home in Lochermill, Bridge of Weir. That year he returned to Bridge of Weir as a judge in Kilbarchan’s Lillia’s Day, a long-running celebration involving floral arches being erected in five streets in the town⁹.

At Renfield Street, he may have shared an office with, or simply been a neighbour of, Alexander Watt, but by then Woodrow was 36 years of age. Had he been in Glasgow for much longer than that an worked with Watt earlier as a trainee or assistant, perhaps during the period of Watt’s partnership with Hugh Barclay? If so, he might well have been acquainted with both James Sellars, who Barclay and Watt as an apprentice in 1857, and Hugh’s younger brother David, whom joined in 1861 (the Barclay & Watt partnership ended in the mid-1860s). In 1859, ‘Mr Peter Woodrow, clerk’ was among those attending the annual meeting and dinner of the Bridge of Weir Schoolfellows’ Society, for members resident ‘in and about Glasgow’¹⁰.

For the next two years, he is listed at 67 Renfield Street, although by mid-1876 he had moved home to Hazelbank, also in Bridge of Weir. By 1878 he is listed in Slater’s Directory, but only as ‘builder, Bridge of Weir’. Before then, however, he was already involved in contracting works in Bridge of Weir, giving evidence on behalf of some labourers who had been asked to move a large boiler sunk in mud but who were being refused payment for their work¹¹.

In September 1875 he married the daughter of a local clothier and at the end of the year was elected an office-bearer in the St Barchan’s Lodge, Kilbarchan No. 156 (he presumably would have been a member for some time by then)¹². In early 1876 he stood for election to the new Kilbarchan School Board, the beginning of an involvement in this and local parish boards that would continue for most of his life¹³.

In May 1876, he took out a feu on land belonging to Sir Michael Robert Shaw-Stewart to build some villas, presumably designed by himself, at the same time as Campbell Douglas was taking out a feu from another local landholder for a cottage¹⁴.

Peter appears to have taken an interest in the development of hydropathic spas; in 1876 when T L Watson’s plans were being discussed for Kilmacolm, Peter ‘referred to his experience of the benefits of hydropathy [and] had visited various institutions’¹⁵.

Much of his time appears to have been spent on minor issues: arguing for a reduction in the rateble value of a villa (reduced from £35 to £30), or claiming the costs of a wicket-fence supplied to a customer¹⁶. However, the increased costs associated with Bridge of Weir’s Freeland School, for which Peter was the builder, led to a lengthy and acrimonious exchange of usually anonymously-signed letters in the local press (‘The Extravagance in the Erection of the Teacher’s House and the Enlargement of Freeland School at Bridge of Weir’ gives some tenor of the nature of the discussion)¹⁷.

Menwhile, he was renting out and presumably designing and certainly building properties in and around Bridge of Weir and Kilmacolm: a double villa on Glebe Road, Kilmacolm (since demolished), and a three-storey tenement and one storey shop adjacent in Market Place, Kilmacolm, which would appear to be that shown below. In 1885 came ‘three large villas on the vacant ground next to the Free Church and at the entrance to the village from Bridge of Weir’, and in 1886 a double villa on Ulundi Road, Johnstone, for which plans were approved in April with the villa was being offered for sale by November¹⁸.

Market Place, Kilmacolm (Google Maps 2018)

The Woodrow family moved into Market Place: in 1887 Peter’s sixth child, a daughter, was born there (in all there would be four sons and three daughters). meanwhile, he had villas and cottages for sale in Bridge of Weir and Kilmacolm. In 1888, ‘Eskgrove’, one of the ‘three large villas’ erected in 1885 finally sold, to someone who alreday owned ‘several tenements’ in the village, and Peter now received planning permission for a villa on Lochwinnoch Road, Kilmacolm, and another villa on Ulundi Road, Johnstone. This, and his other villa, could be anyone of the large blonde sandstone villas at the northern end of the street, including the villa with vaguely Thomson-ish elements below¹⁹.

Villa on Ulundi Road, Johnstone (Google 2018)

‘Rats among the Pastry’

Now problems arose at Market Place in 1890, whose ground floor was occupied by a baker, who complained that rats ‘nightly injured his stock seriously, and his business in consequence fell off’. The baker had moved into Market Place from another property owned by Woodrow. As owner, Woodrow responded that the damage he had spotted amounted to ‘two penny buns’ and the baker had taken two months to report the problem. He had had any rat-holes filled, then identified the source of the problem (a hole in a nearby pipe) and had that fixed. Woodrow won the case, but within a year the ‘Small Family Bakery and Restaurant’ was up for sale²⁰, and the Woodrow family had relocated to a new home, Woodholm.

Peter Woodrow had wide community and social interests: as a member of the Committee of Management of the Parochial Board, as committee member of the Kilmacolm Curling Club, and becoming a shareholder in the Kilmacolm Gas Company²¹. In late 1892 he considered standing in the Renfrewshire County Council elections and went so far as to appear in public debates before withdrawing, probably because he was then elected by the Kilmacolm Parochial Board as their representative to the Council²². In 1896 he was appointed a JP.

In 1894, he constructed new premises for the Royal Bank of Scotland, with apartments above, as builder and proprietor, obtained permission for a new villa at Overton, then for a new villa next to the Royal Bank, and proposed and received agreement from the Parochial Board for alterations to improve the Kilmacolm Church Halls²³. In 1897 he purchased land from the Glebe Gardens Association for a pair of semi-detached villas²⁴

The growth of Kilmacolm led to other concerns, with Woodrow involved in obtaining the land for a new burial ground for the Parish Council; in mid-1897, however, he resigned on grounds of ill-health, but was well enough the following year to be elected a director of the Bridge of Weir Gas Board, later becoming chairman. In October 1900, however, he formally withdrew from public life at a banquet that also marked his silver wedding²⁵.

He was still involved in renting and selling properties, and is listed as responsible for joinery on the Kilmacolm Parish Council offices when completed in 1901. Two years later he was building a semi-detached villa on Langbank Road; this work was probably undertaken by the firm he had started with two of his sons, who also worked on extensions to the Gasworks, completed in 1904. A villa on the Port Glasgow Road followed, a villa near the Mill Dam²⁶.

Market Place reared its head again in 1907 (with another baker in place), when the adjacent Gospel Hall, also owned by Peter Woodrow, caught fire, but the damage was contained (and covered by insurance). He rebuilt it within four months, providing ‘a good-sized hall, a number of dwelling-houses, and several first-class shops’²⁷.

Peter Woodrow died at his home in Westfield, Kilmacolm, on 28 January 1917, and was buried in the Kilmacolm Cemetery with whose creation he had been involved. His wife of 42 years died less than six months later.

John Woodrow, architect and builder

Generally, other members of the Woodrow family appeared to have worked as joiners, possibly within the family firm, or as farmers. One who did more was Peter’s nephew, another John (1858-1936), who has an even more marginal entry in the Dictionary of Scottish Architects, although it notes that he won the competition for the Johnstone Combination Hospital in 1887 (from 72 entries)²⁸. Like his uncle, John took on tasks large and small: a smaller one the same year was the joiner work for the new Kilmacolm Police Station²⁹. While his work on the hospital was well-received, as was his joiner work on the enlarged Established Church at Howwood, John’s building of Annieslea Villa in Bridge of Weir resulted in a two-year court case arising from a persistent smell of gas from a poorly-soldered downpipe (John won, less having to pay £2 for the cost of re-soldering and associated works)³⁰.

At the end of 1888, when the area was experiencing a period of continuing expansion, he was constructing a villa on the Barngill side of Bridge of Weir; in 1889 he won a contract for a new waterworks for Bridge of Weir, involving two-and-a-half miles of underground piping carrying water from Carroth Burn³¹. In the main, John Woodrow appears to have had a positive relationship with his employees, who presented him with a set of silver knives on the eve of his marriage in 1889, although that did not stop one worker taking him to court after he was injured by the collapse of a wall he was demolishing, seeking compensation of £100 (almost £11,000 in modern terms)³². The worker lost.

That year, Woodrow was involved in selling the five-bedroom Gryffe House in Bridge of Weir. In 1892, in Bridge of Weir, he undertook the joinery and glazing work on the Free Church after an extensive fire, and was responsible for widening the bridge over the Gryffe River³³. The following year he was building another house in Bridge of Weir, managing to have the rateable valuation halved, on the grounds that the hosue was still incomplete³⁴. As Bridge of Weir expanded, so did its need for potable water: in late 1894 Woodrow was contracted to run a pipe from a nearby burn to the Donaldfield reservoir ‘as soon as possible’³⁵. It isn’t known whether that work was affected by a six-week series of thefts of joinery tools from four different Renfrewshire firms (beginning with Woodrow’s), as well as break-ins at four private houses, all conducted by ‘Henry Cathcart, alias McArthur’, who was later arrested and sent to Glasgow for sentencing.

Like his uncle, John Woodrow also considered entering local politics; in early 1895 he stood, but then stood down, as a candidate for Kilbarchan Parish Board. At the end of the year came a violent storm across the west of Scotland; the gable of one of a group of cottages being erected by him being the only damage in Bridge of Weir³⁶. In 1896 came a contract for the masonry work for more extensions to Kilbarchan School, presumably the same building that had been built and then extended by his uncle³⁷. The following year he was responsible for a new hall underneath Bridge of Weir Parish Church, and a year later the new clubhouse for the Bridge of Weir and Ranfurly Bowling Club³⁸.

With the new century came other involvements: in 1901 he was responsible for the masonry and joinery work on the new Kilbarchan Parish Church (below), built of red Locharbriggs sandstone and replacing the adjacent 1724 church, and, the following year, widening the Over-Johnstone bridge³⁹.

There was a shareholding in the new Ranfurly Laundry and as an office-bearer in Kilmacolm’s Lodge Sir Michael No. 989⁴⁰, as well as more involvement in waterworks, involving a contract for the new Bridge of Weir Sewage Purification Works and as general contractor for Hugh and David Barclay’s Kilmacolm Baptist Church (below)⁴¹.

In 1903, uncle and nephew were both involved in the extension to the Bridge of Weir Gasworks⁴², followed by a clubhouse for Ranfurly Castle Golf Club⁴³. Near-disaster occurred in 1905 when his joinery shop, adjacent to the town’s gasworks, caught fire, although serious damage to the latter was ultimately averted⁴⁴.

Throughout this period John was renting out houses and cottages in the town, presumably as owner-builder, but in 1908 he was commissioned to build three cottages on the Gryffe Castle estate ‘built on the plan now known by the familiar name of Garden City… to provide improved dwelling for the working classes, with garden plots for each’⁴⁵. Whether John was slowly removing himself from the business isn’t known: the last press report on his firm’s work comes in 1911, when a Glasgow labourer attempted unsuccessfully to claim compensation for having slipped while loading a wheelbarrow⁴⁶. In December 1936, aged 78, while inspecting the bank of the River Gryffe after recent heavy rains, he slipped into the river and drowned⁴⁷. Two sons continued the business.

A family tree for the Woodrow family appears in the Combination Tree on www.ancestry.co.uk

1. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 27 Jul 1872

2. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 23 Jan 1875

3. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 25 Jul 1885

4. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 4 Aug 1887; Paisley Daily Express, 3 Aug 1881

5. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 8 Jan 1887

6. Renfrewshire Independent, 2 Nov 1861; 6 Sep 1862

7. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Advertiser, 22 Feb 1873

8. Renfrewshire Independent, 10 Jul 1858

9. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 1 Aug 1874

10. Renfrewshire Independent, 1 Jan 1859

11. North British Daily Mail, 4 Feb 1875

12. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 4 Dec 1875

13. North British Daily Mail, 29 Mar 1876

14. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 2 May 1876. Campbell Douglas’ villa may not have gone ahead; it does not appear in his list of works in the Dictionary of Scottish Architects

15. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 7 Aug 1876

16. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 19 Sep 1878; 21 Feb 1879

17. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 5 Apr 1879

18. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 2 Jun 1883; 16 Jun 1883; 22 Aug 1885; 6 Nov 1886

19. Greenock Herald, 4 Aug 1888; 20 Jul 1889

20. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 22 Jan 1890; Glasgow Herald, 23 Apr 1892

21. Renfrewshire Independent, 6 Nov 1886; Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 6 Jul 1892

22. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 23 Nov 1892; 26 Dec 1892

23. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 19 Jan 1894; 15 Dec 1894; 17 Apr 1895; 12 Jun 1895

24. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 30 January 1897

25. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 9 May 1896; 1 Jun 1897; Glasgow Herald, 11 Jul 1898; Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 20 Oct 1900

26. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 7 Nov 1901; 14 Mar 1903; Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 20 Feb 1904; 22 Sep 1905; 30 Mar 1906

27. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 11 Mar 1907; 19 Jul 1907

28. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 8 Jan 1887

29. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 19 Apr 1887

30. Paisley Daily Express, 23 May 1888; Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 12 May 1888

31. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 3 Nov 1888; Paisley Daily Express, 20 Apr 1889

32. Paisley Daily Express, 20 Apr 1889; Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 22 Jun 1889

33. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 4 Jun 1892; 13 Aug 1892

34. Paisley Daily Express, 16 Sep 1893

35. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 13 Oct 1894

36. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 14 Dec 1895

37. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 14 Mar 1896

38. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 27 Nov 1897; 18 Jun 1898

39. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 19 Jan 1901; 12 Jul 1902

40. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 14 Mar 1903; 13 Dec 1906

41. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 11 Jul 1903; 28 Nov 1903; 7 May 1904

42. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 20 Feb 1904

43. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 3 Jun 1905

44. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 29 Jul 1905

45. Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Gazette, 21 Mar 1908

46. Paisley Daily Express, 12 May 1911

47. Edinburgh Evening News, 22 Dec 1936