Paisley
Paisley, the "Pearl of Scotland", is a town and former burgh located in the west central lowlands of Scotland approximately eight miles west-south-west of Glasgow. It is the administrative centre of the Renfrewshire council area. Straddling the River Cart, the settlement occupies the low land to the north of the Gleniffer Braes.
In 1163 an abbey was founded at Paisley around which a settlement soon grew. The town became famous during the 18th and 19th centuries for the production of cloth, especially cotton with the distinctive Paisley Pattern which was, however, originally not Scottish but a Babylonian design based on a stylized form of the acanthus leaf. It may therefore have been known to the Israelites in Babylonian exile.
The common slang term for a person from Paisley is a Buddie
Famous Residents - Past and Present
- Kenneth McKellar - tenor
- Tom Conti - actor
- John Byrne - painter and playwright
- Gordon Bowie - engineer and cricketer
- Paul McGillion - actor (Stargate: Atlantis)
- Gerard Butler - actor
- David Tennant - actor (Doctor Who)
- Alexander Wilson - ornithologist and poet
- Reverend James Witherspoon - signatory of the American Declaration of Independence