At 11.40pm on the night of 14 April 1912, en route to New York and on her maiden voyage, the RMS Titanic struck the iceberg that would ultimately lead to …
Our airport, which Renfrew folk were so proud of has also been relocated, this from necessity rather than any other reason, but from its humble beginnings in the Gilchrist’s sisters field in Newmains Road, then on to a new site at the top end of Broadloan, where Tesco’s Supermarket is now situated it was surely a sad day when the decision was made for the new International Glasgow Airport, as it was to be called, to be sited at Abbotsinch, formerly used by HMS Sanderling, but even there, it is still within easy reach of the people of Renfrew, although our once proud boast that we bad an airport now belongs to the citizens of Paisley.
Renfrew Junior’s Football Club is still functioning and is still well supported by the die hards, but it would take another long run, similar to that of 1962 when, after a hard fought match against Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, resulting in a 1-1 draw in front of 63,000 (yes sixty three thousand supporters) they were finally beaten 1-0 in the replay of the Scottish Junior Cup final. It would take a return to that form to once again get the support that they deserve.
And so William McMasters part in this little tale comes to an end, now I, Alastair Dunsmore will endeavour to try and relate some of my personal experiences, as to Williams I will break it down into different categories that of, Education, Religion, Sport and Leisure, and a general update of the town in my time.
The country returned a Labour Government, and on introducing important legislation, offered us the welfare state and a health service which was then the envy of the world, and legislation which embraced the work of local authorities. It was with this background that Renfrew found itself in 1954 with a Labour controlled council.
The First World War had started and finished and I (William McMaster) still had a few months to go before leaving school and I knew that things would never be the same again as teenage life approached amidst economic and social change.
Saturday afternoon was the weekly event when children would go to the Regal Cinema or what was then called the “Pictures”, and those of us who were better off had another penny to buy our comic paper and a third to be spent on sweets, either at one go, or In portions of two halfpennies or four farthings.
Circumstances demanded that they use their imagination and initiative, if one boy had a toy gun then the poorer one made his own bow and arrow, and if a little girl could not have a nice doll she would then make her own, and when playing “cowboys and Indians” they had ample space to play, with hedges and grassed embankments to offer realism, the game often ending In an argument as to who had shot first and who was dead.
You could take a walk along Glebe Street and up Sandy Road and find fields the whole way to Cockles Loan with the exception of some private houses here and there, in fact every housing scheme in Renfrew was at one time farmland which changed the face of the town and in itself led to many other changes.
Our next walk would be out the Inchinnan Road, and to observe the number of trees on either side, a far cry from the housing estates, the Blythswood Retail Park, and the Normandy Hotel, which now occupy this site.