Barrhead

Barrhead is a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland standing on the Levern Water seven miles to the south west of Glasgow. It was formerly a centre for the production of ceramics, the principal employer being the factory of Thomas Shanks and Sons Ltd. The factory's output was prodigious in the early part of the twentieth century and much of its products found their way around the globe. In response to the popularity of all things Chinese in that era, Shanks produced imitation Ming vases. The more expensive of these were virtually indistinguishable from the genuine article. To this day inhabitants are known locally as "Mingers".