Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Paisley Tolbooth
Tolbooth (15th Century)
Site Name Paisley Tolbooth
Classification Tolbooth (15th Century)
Canmore ID 43205
Site Number NS46SE 9
NGR NS 4829 6402
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/43205
- Council Renfrewshire
- Parish Paisley (Renfrew)
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Renfrew
- Former County Renfrewshire
NS46SE 9 4829 6402.
(NS 4829 6402) Eleven months after the charter of James IV erecting the town of Paisley into a burgh of barony (1488-9) Abbot George Shaw presented the new burgh with "our House, commonly called the Heyt House, with vaults, booths and other its pertinents, as well under as above", to be henceforth" a common Tolbooth". The building was of two storeys and stood at the southwest corner of Moss Street where the Commercial Bank now stands. Subsequently a common hall and a steeple containing a clock and bell were added to it, the latter are first mentioned in 1603. In 1609, the whole structure was said to be ruinous, funds were raised the following year for its repair. A new tolbooth and steeple were built in 1757, the tolbooth was demolished in 1821 and the steeple was removed in 1870.
W M Metcalfe 1909
Publication Account (1982)
The first tolbooth in Paisley was erected shortly after the foundation of the burgh in 1488. It was of two storeys and was located at the southwest corner of Moss Street. Subsequently, a clock and bell were added to it. The structure was apparently ruinous by 1610 when the town council sold six feus of land in order to raise capital to help pay for a new tolbooth. The 1610 structure was in turn removed in 1757 when a third municipal building was erected, housing not only council offices, but also quarters for the sheriff court and town clerk's office. This tolbooth was taken down in 1821.
Information from ‘Historic Paisley: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1982).
