The entrance to Westway Park

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 7 Jul 2018

Westway Park is a large industrial park in Renfrew. The view is from Porterfield Road (running L—R in foreground). On the right are the Image; see Image for more context. The booth under the spiky canopy stands near the earlier site of a railway station: Porterfield Station, for which see https://canmore.org.uk/site/197680 at Canmore. The course of the railway lines corresponds closely to that of the present-day road that leads past the booth. Porterfield Road takes its name from Porterfield, which stood at Image: "this farm steading is the property of the burgh of Renfrew; now occupied by John Muir" (OS Name Books, c.1857). In 1856, a road, corresponding to the line of present-day Porterfield Road, already led ESE from there. By 1895, industry was springing up nearby: the Albert Cabinet Works were at Image (now housing), and the Renfrew Forge & Steel Works were at Image (which is still industrial). The 1911 map revision shows Porterfield Station, mentioned above; a rifle range (Image) just northeast of the cabinet works; and many more works alongside the White Cart Water. The 1939 map revision shows a Rubber Works (Image) within what is now Westway Park, and two travelling cranes are shown among the works by the White Cart. They moved roughly NW—SE, one through Image, the other through Image; at the time of writing, the tracks that supported the second of these travelling cranes can still be discerned on satellite imagery.

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