Everything about Bishopton Renfrewshire totally explained
Bishopton (
Baile an Easbaig in
Scottish Gaelic) is a large village in
Renfrewshire,
Scotland, a few miles west of
Erskine.
Transport Links
Bishopton sits a couple of miles from the southern end of the
Erskine Bridge, which spans the
River Clyde between
Renfrewshire and
West Dunbartonshire. Part way along the B815 road is a
computer factory; which was built in the late 1980s by
Compaq Computers. Compaq merged with
Hewlett-Packard in 2002. However, this factory is considered to be a part of larger town
Erskine. A
chain ferry transported vehicles across the River Clyde before the bridge was built. The former Ferry Master's house still survives on the south side of the Clyde.
Bishopton is served by the,
double track,
electrified,
Inverclyde railway line, (former
Caledonian Railway),
Gourock and
Wemyss Bay branches; with frequent train services in both directions. The ROF Bishopton
railway sidings joined the railway line just west of
Bishopton railway station; but they've been closed for some years.
The
A8 passes through Bishopton; and the
M8 motorway runs parallel to the A8, with access to Bishopton from both junctions 30 and 31.
The former ROF Bishopton site
A very large
Explosive-manufacturing
Royal Ordnance Factory,
ROF Bishopton, was built in
World War II on
farm land, acquired by compulsory purchase, on the other side of the railway line. Over 2,000
acres (8 km²) of land from up to seven farms was used to build this factory. The land included
Dargavel House, which still survives.
The ROF was
privatised in 1984 and has now closed down.
After privatisation the
Ministry of Defence Police (MOD Police) moved out and the former
MOD Police Social Club at
Holm Park, and its adjoining sports field, became part of Bishopton. The former MOD Police houses at both
Holm Park and
Rossland were sold off to private buyers.
Bishopton's Medical Centre was built in a corner of this sports field, opposite the shops.
BAE Systems the current owners of the ROF Bishopton site and
Redrow have submitted controversial proposals to use a large part of this site for building new housing. If accepted this could, at least, double the size of Bishopton. Local residents have indicated their concern at the proposals by voting in a local referendum, held on the 4th of April 2005, organised by local action groups and council. The results showed that out of the 1485 who voted, 100 (6.7%) were for the development, 1361 (91.6%) were against it, 19 (1.3%) were not concerned and there were 5 (0.3%) spoiled votes. The major concerns they've are with the size of the expansion - with the associated knock-on effects to the local infrastructure - and fears of the high levels of contamination that are likely to be found on the site. Although there's little evidence of the extent of the contamination, there's significant anecdotal evidence of heavy pollution.
Trivia
- Bishopton technically has no 'streets'. There are plenty of Roads, Avenues and Crescents but there's yet to be a Street in Bishopton.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bishopton Renfrewshire'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://bishopton__renfrewshire.totallyexplained.com">Bishopton, Renfrewshire Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
