£180 million Regeneration
Project Approved
Inverclyde Council’s Planning Board has given permission in principle to
one of the largest-ever regeneration projects yet seen in Scotland.
The £180 million redevelopment of Inverclyde’s historic James Watt
Dock by urban regeneration company Riverside Inverclyde (ri) and Peel,
one of the UK’s leading property and transport companies, will see over
a thousand homes built, 12,000 square metres of retail, business and
commercial fl oor space developed, a one hundred bed hotel and a marina
with associated workshop.
Councillor David Wilson who Chairs the Planning Board said: “This is a
once-in a lifetime opportunity to completely transform the area and
breathe new life into Inverclyde. The plans are imaginative, ambitious
and exciting and mark a huge step forward in our drive to make Inverclyde
the History spot
the perfect place to live and work. The new marina will also be the
perfect setting for when Inverclyde hosts the Tall Ships Race in 2011.”
by Renfrewshire Local History Forum
Bill Nicol, Chief Executive of Riverside Inverclyde said: “I am delighted
that Inverclyde Council has granted planning permission for the
Archaeology comprehensive redevelopment of James Watt Dock. Riverside Inverclyde
has been working closely with Euan Jamieson, Development Director
The Deserted Settlement of Laigh Lawfield
of Clydeport and Inverclyde Council over the last year to develop the
plans. We have formed a new joint venture company to deliver the £180
A little east of High Lawfi eld Farm on the road from Kilmacolm to
million scheme and obtaining consent is a key milestone which will allow
Houston, an old track winds down from the road to the ruins of
infrastructural and fi rst phase works to commence within the next few
Laigh Lawfi eld Farm and continues as a marked pathway to Knapps.
weeks”.
Information from old maps and parish records establishes early
settlement and land use at Lawfi eld.
The proposals also include plans for a yacht club, a visitor centre
associated with the Titan Crane and a mixed use for the historic Sugar
The fi rst direct evidence
Shed including retail, leisure and residential uses.
of a fermtoun or farm
settlement at Lawfi eld
Regeneration Convener Councillor Jim Clocherty said: “This is possibly one
is marked on Pont’s map
of the most exciting projects for the future development of Inverclyde.
in the late 16th century.
Taking in the historic Sugar Sheds this will open up the Greenock Waterfront
By the 1730s, Lawfi eld
and will bring many new retail, leisure and residential features to this
had developed into
ambitious project. It is hoped that the 107 acre site could generate as
three small settlements
many as 1,700 jobs.”
- Laigh Lawfi eld (the
original settlement), High
Lawfi eld and Gateside.
Only High Lawfi eld exists
today, but the ruins of the
deserted settlement of
Laigh Lawfi eld can still be seen.
At Laigh Lawfi eld (see sketch above) the foundations of at least half
a dozen stone structures stand to a height of little more than half a
metre with about twenty well-established sycamore trees growing
out of the ruined walls. The raised round platform on the south-east
of the site was a mill powered by horses and it is possible that the
Company name and trade mark checker
u-shaped arrangement of stones to the south may be the remains of
The Business Link website has a search tool to help you check that the
a corn kiln. The farm was deserted by the 1890s when the OS map
company name or trade mark you are thinking of using for your business is
shows no fully roofed buildings on the site.
not already registered or is similar to one already existing. It is advisable
From the mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century High Lawfi eld to look at your prospective company names and trade marks at the same
was farmed by a family named Laird. Gateside, the smallest of the time if you want to try to secure both for your business and to check that
three farms, no longer existed during this period. you are not going to infringe someone else’s trade mark.
Laigh Lawfi eld was occupied by Allan Speir in 1731. The Horse Tax The Business Link company name search service directly searches the
Records document David Scott as the farmer at Laigh Lawfi eld in Companies House database and checks the index of all UK live companies
1797. He owned two working horses and paid a tax of four shillings. and those dissolved within the last 12 months.
In 1841 another D Scott, aged 55, with two agricultural labourers
The trade mark service directly searches the UK Intellectual Property
and two female servants, farmed Laigh Lawfi eld.
Offi ce database.
If any readers have further information on this deserted settlement
You can also access these sites separately at www.companieshouse.gov.
please contact Renfrewshire Local History Forum at info@rlhf.info
uk and www.ipo.gov.uk
32 FEBRUARY 2010 | send your ARTICLES & PHOTOS to info@advertizer.co.uk www.advertizer.co.uk| 01505 874385 | www.theadvertizer.co.uk
185_FEB10_30-33 TRAVEL-HISTORY-MONEY.ind.indd 32 22/01/2010 10:01:42
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