Tannahill Remembered
Recently the Tannahill "ghost" properties in Paisley had become a target for flytipping and fireraising amid ongoing work to regenerate the area.
Once the most sought after properties in the area, the Tannahill estate in Ferguslie Park had fallen into disrepair with some blaming historic botched dampness repairs and lack of investment from the local council. The last of the remaining tenants moved out earlier this year.
Demolition work has begun on 51 blocks, which includes Drums Avenue, Ferguslie Park Avenue, Tannahill Road and Tannahill Terrace and has been broadly welcomed by the community.
The sadness of the demise of this once pristine area where Judges, Police and the Lord Provost of Paisley lived is not lost on ex residents who paint a picture of a thriving and proud estate where prize winning manicured gardens and spotless streets where a given.
The waiting list for a house in Tannahill "was as long as your arm" and you were "filling dead men's shoe's" as residents rarely left willingly and only the death of a beloved neighbour would see a house change hands.
Now looking more like a war zone, with roofs ablaze and shuttered up windows, the empty streets will vanish as the demolition firm, Caskie raze the estate to the ground with the project expected to last 12 months.
Local council member, Terry McTernan has lived in Ferguslie Park his whole life and now works at the Tannahill Centre, which is home to a number of community groups making changes in the area.
“It’s a million miles away from the community that I grew up in,” he said.
“It still continues to experience various challenges – food insecurity, fuel poverty etcetera, but I think the pandemic was a real turning point.
“It allowed us to visibly see the efforts that can be made by people just coming together and working together for the greater good and that’s something that Ferguslie Park has always been good at.
“For me, locally-led regeneration is the way forward. It’s local people that have that internal knowledge.
“A number of the provisions that we’re responsible for delivering within the community, certainly since the pandemic, are locally-led. They’re much wider-reaching in nature and they tend to stick.”
Ferguslie Park was found to be Scotland's most deprived area in both 2012 and 2016, and in a study, in 2020, the third most deprived area in the country. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation put its employment rate at 28 per cent, with 39% of people classed as income deprived.
Mr McTernan said "This important development marks the beginning of the end of the community-led housing regeneration initiative for the new Tannahill area and provides a fantastic platform for continued positive engagement with both the community council and the community at large in respect of the future use of the land."
Recently the Tannahill "ghost" properties in Paisley had become a target for flytipping and fireraising amid ongoing work to regenerate the area.
Once the most sought after properties in the area, the Tannahill estate in Ferguslie Park had fallen into disrepair with some blaming historic botched dampness repairs and lack of investment from the local council. The last of the remaining tenants moved out earlier this year.
Demolition work has begun on 51 blocks, which includes Drums Avenue, Ferguslie Park Avenue, Tannahill Road and Tannahill Terrace and has been broadly welcomed by the community.
The sadness of the demise of this once pristine area where Judges, Police and the Lord Provost of Paisley lived is not lost on ex residents who paint a picture of a thriving and proud estate where prize winning manicured gardens and spotless streets where a given.
The waiting list for a house in Tannahill "was as long as your arm" and you were "filling dead men's shoe's" as residents rarely left willingly and only the death of a beloved neighbour would see a house change hands.
Now looking more like a war zone, with roofs ablaze and shuttered up windows, the empty streets will vanish as the demolition firm, Caskie raze the estate to the ground with the project expected to last 12 months.
Local council member, Terry McTernan has lived in Ferguslie Park his whole life and now works at the Tannahill Centre, which is home to a number of community groups making changes in the area.
“It’s a million miles away from the community that I grew up in,” he said.
“It still continues to experience various challenges – food insecurity, fuel poverty etcetera, but I think the pandemic was a real turning point.
“It allowed us to visibly see the efforts that can be made by people just coming together and working together for the greater good and that’s something that Ferguslie Park has always been good at.
“For me, locally-led regeneration is the way forward. It’s local people that have that internal knowledge.
“A number of the provisions that we’re responsible for delivering within the community, certainly since the pandemic, are locally-led. They’re much wider-reaching in nature and they tend to stick.”
Ferguslie Park was found to be Scotland's most deprived area in both 2012 and 2016, and in a study, in 2020, the third most deprived area in the country. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation put its employment rate at 28 per cent, with 39% of people classed as income deprived.
Mr McTernan said "This important development marks the beginning of the end of the community-led housing regeneration initiative for the new Tannahill area and provides a fantastic platform for continued positive engagement with both the community council and the community at large in respect of the future use of the land."
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:30See all that stuff hanging out that window?
00:38That was me putting that in.
00:39That's a fitted straps bedroom.
00:40I'm going to take a picture of that.
00:41My goodness, that's totally the same flair doing.
00:42I don't remember having been in that right earlier.
00:43It was there.
00:44Many a good Christmas period in here, I'll tell you that.
00:57We used to have a gate here, because of my daddy, when it took no oil, we had a gate.
01:10That was my mum and my dad's room, so that was mine and my brother's, but then he got
01:18married and that was my room.
01:22And then when we moved in, that was my mum and Lisa's room, Thomas's and mine and Tam's.
01:32My goodness.
01:33My name's Terry McTernan and I'm the current chairperson of Fergusleigh Community Council.
01:36We're at the site of demolition of the Tannahill area in the community, a bittersweet moment
01:43I need to say.
01:44It's fantastic from a regeneration perspective, it's great, it's the metaphorical final plook
01:50on the face of the community, but simultaneously it's a really sad time for some because there
01:54are many, many happy memories, certainly when I grew up here in the 80s and the 90s, this
02:01was the most highly sought after area of the community.
02:04You knew for a fact there was a waiting list as long as your arm that would snatch up the
02:08houses and, sorry to say, but it was waiting to fill dead men's shoes because folk did
02:13not move out of Tannahill.
02:15Houses were seen as upper class, they were seen as the kind of height of local aspiration
02:20if you like.
02:21The Paisley Provost lived in the area.
02:23The Provost died in number 22.
02:25There were sturdy houses, you couldn't get better houses, and houses you buy now, they're
02:30certainly not the same quality that you had then.
02:33Around about 2015, there was the introduction of an Act which meant houses had to comply
02:39to a particular standard.
02:41Unfortunately, the local authority wasn't able to financially invest to bring the properties
02:47back to that basic standard.
02:49And the houses did need renovating, but they were quite neglected by the council.
02:55They weren't maintained like other areas like Glenburn, Foxbar.
02:58They were coming in putting new kitchens, they were sorting out whatever.
03:02Tannahill never seemed to see that.
03:04You see this side down here in Tannahill, terrible for dampness, really, really bad.
03:10I remember my mother fighting for people that had dampness in their house, and when
03:16they believed it, it was absolutely terrible.
03:17Towards the latter end, when the area started to decline, we had started to see more and
03:23more of the houses becoming vacant, people moving away from the area, and then that just
03:29comes to a natural conclusion in the end.
03:31How are you feeling?
03:33Sad.
03:36Lots of memories?
03:37Yep.
03:41Hello?
03:42Thomas?
03:43Go on to FaceTime.
03:44What?
03:45I'm in Tannahill, I'm in our house.
03:46Hi!
03:47Hi!
03:48Are you up?
03:49Thomas, it's still got the same furniture.
03:50Let's see.
03:51There's the loft.
03:52Let's see this.
03:53Wow.
03:54Wow.
03:55Right, you want to see your wee cupboard?
03:56I remember I hid under there once and didn't go to school, and you didn't, you know.
03:57You couldn't find me normally.
03:58You bism.
03:59Don't you dare.
04:00Don't you dare.
04:01Don't you dare.
04:02Don't you dare.
04:03Don't you dare.
04:04Don't you dare.
04:05Don't you dare.
04:06Don't you dare.
04:07Don't you dare.
04:08Don't you dare.
04:09Don't think we put wood on them, didn't we, no?
04:10The other front door, Thomas, look.
04:11Oh aye, it's the same door.
04:12It's the same door, I know.
04:13See the wallpaper that's in here?
04:14That was the wallpaper that my mammy put up.
04:15Would you come in?
04:16I fell and spot your head open right there.
04:17You fell and spot your head open right there, I remember.
04:18I cannot believe I get in.
04:19Oh my God, I'm so happy I get in there.
04:20It's a bygone era, but I feel it's a bygone era that absolutely needs to be celebrated.
04:21It's a bygone era.
04:22It's a bygone era.
04:23It's a bygone era.
04:24It's a bygone era.
04:25It's a bygone era.
04:26It's a bygone era.
04:27It's a bygone era.
04:28It's a bygone era.
04:29It's a bygone era.
04:30It's a bygone era.
04:31It's a bygone era.
04:32It's a bygone era.
04:33It's a bygone era.
04:34It's a bygone era.
04:35It's a bygone era.
04:36It's a bygone era.
04:37It's a bygone era.
04:38It's a bygone era.
04:39It's a bygone era.
04:40It's a bygone era.
04:41It's a bygone era.
04:42It's a bygone era.
04:43It's a bygone era.
04:44It's a bygone era.
04:45It's a bygone era.
04:46It's a bygone era.
04:47It's a bygone era.
04:48It's a bygone era.
04:49It's a bygone era.
04:50It's a bygone era.
04:51It's a bygone era.
04:52It's a bygone era.
04:53It's a bygone era.
04:54It's a bygone era.
04:55It's a bygone era.
04:56It's a bygone era.
04:57It's a bygone era.
04:58It's a bygone era.
04:59It's a bygone era.
05:00It's a bygone era.
05:01It's a bygone era.
05:02It's a bygone era.
05:03It's a bygone era.
05:04It's a bygone era.
05:05It's a bygone era.
05:06It's a bygone era.
05:07It's a bygone era.
05:08It's a bygone era.
05:09It's a bygone era.
05:10It's a bygone era.
05:11It's a bygone era.
05:12It's a bygone era.
05:13It's a bygone era.
05:14It's a bygone era.
05:15It's a bygone era.
05:16We started moving in that had children, where we made more friends.
05:19I was about 12 or 13 when we got this house, I think.
05:23I got married out here in 1985.
05:26I moved up to 28, Turner Hill Terrace.
05:29And then when my dad died, we moved in here with my mum.
05:32And I brought my children up in this house as well.
05:35And then in 2002, I moved out.
05:37When I went upstairs, I was so sad.
05:40It brought back hundreds of memories.
05:42It was so sad.
05:43And then I just got so happy.
05:45I remember my first day walking up the top of the road going to school.
05:49There was many things, family coming to the house.
05:53Unfortunately, I lost my dad.
05:55The last time I saw my dad was in the house in 1973,
05:58before he passed away with bronchial pneumonia.
06:01And even then, it was the support that was roundabout for my mum,
06:04because my dad was only 31.
06:05My mum was 30.
06:07I was 10.
06:08And Mark was 8.
06:09And it was like the support that we had.
06:11And I'm quite sure my mum wouldn't have got over that
06:13unless she had these people there to help her.
06:17But everyone did look out for each other.
06:19We had a chap across the road that used to fix everyone's hoovers.
06:22You might not have got them back at the time when you got somebody else's.
06:27But everyone did do something to help somebody.
06:30I left to get married from there.
06:32My brother did.
06:33There was just everything in my life that took me up until the age of 25.
06:37And really, I think what moulded me into the person that I am
06:41and making me sort of have the confidence as well
06:44to sort of uproot one Sunday and move to Manchester without knowing a soul.
06:48This is Tannahill Road going into Terrace.
06:51You weren't even allowed in that park, you know.
06:54Our wee neighbour was Mrs Fallon.
06:57She was a lovely little woman.
06:59Her and her husband used to go on the cruises.
07:01Queen Elizabeth.
07:03None but the best for them.
07:05All the things that we're trying to encourage within our communities now,
07:08like growing your own vegetables in the back garden and stuff like that.
07:11These were things that were readily done.
07:14Permanent fixtures of the culture of the people that lived here.
07:17And despite the area's dilapidation,
07:19you can walk round and you can see some of the fantastic species of plants
07:24and herbs and trees and bushes scattered all over it.
07:28My dad, he loved his garden.
07:30He used to grow his own veg.
07:32We had strawberries, we had potatoes, cabbage,
07:36and everybody looked forward to getting everything.
07:38See, when it all grew, he passed it on to all the families,
07:41so we all got it, you know.
07:43But he loved it.
07:44And then when he got too old, his legs were too sore,
07:47he couldn't do it any more, so he just flattened it out
07:49and made it a garden bit.
07:51But what he loved, my mum and my dad, they loved their garden.
07:54I left in 87.
07:56I got a new job and was offered a promotion,
07:58which meant moving to Manchester.
08:00So I was there from 62 through to 87.
08:04I work on the railway, and when we're in the mess room,
08:07we say, oh, you're from Paisley.
08:09Oh, God, have you heard of that Ferguson parking lot?
08:11And they went, excuse me, I grew up there.
08:13And they went, oh, you're a feg.
08:14And I thought, well, if that's what I am, I am.
08:16And they just sort of thought, oh, my God, was it drugs, booze?
08:20Was it horrible?
08:21Was people getting beat up?
08:22And it was never like that.
08:24Were drugs a problem in Tarnahall?
08:25No, never, never.
08:27No, they weren't.
08:28They weren't anything like that in Tarnahall.
08:30I just don't know how it went down,
08:32because there were people actually know where they did it all up.
08:35And it was great again.
08:38I remember taking part in a kind of youth organisation
08:41when I was young, when young people would openly suggest
08:44that when they applied for jobs,
08:46they would just put their address, Paisley,
08:48rather than specify Fergusley Park,
08:51because there was a feeling, certainly,
08:53or a perception that if you were from Fergusley
08:56and you mentioned that,
08:57then you probably wouldn't even get an interview.
08:59But they loved it here, my kids.
09:01They used to play, like, ice hockey,
09:04well, it was hockey, out on the street,
09:06with their rollerblades.
09:07My daughter, all her friends came,
09:09there were nine of them all in the same class,
09:11and they all played.
09:13Great memories.
09:14It was a strong community.
09:15And as I say, when I grew up,
09:17you weren't allowed to go in the gardens,
09:19you weren't allowed to play.
09:21It was very...
09:22There was only one ice cream van a night.
09:24A lot of the cultural aspects of Fergusley Park,
09:26people's behaviour and their social,
09:29circumstances, et cetera,
09:31are now heralded as shining examples
09:33of how we should all be living our lives.
09:35So I saw that there was always
09:37an eagerness to look out for the neighbour,
09:39or flip-flop along the road
09:41with a foil-covered dinner,
09:43because Mary's just out of the hospital recently,
09:45she's not been keeping too clever.
09:47So these were all very...
09:49What folks would, in a term,
09:51rallying around in times of need,
09:53demonstrated recently during the pandemic,
09:55everyday life in Fergusley.
09:57See here, this big brae here?
09:59They used to go down that in black bags,
10:01and bin lids,
10:03and slide down to the bottom of there in the snow.
10:05This used to be the keyhole up here.
10:07There were about 14 houses, I think,
10:09up the keyhole.
10:11Is that all gone?
10:12All gone. It's away.
10:15That was a great wee family area up there.
10:18That one there is the banana brae.
10:20See this man?
10:23You knew everybody.
10:25I think, if you look over the past 10, 15 years,
10:29I can see why it's happened.
10:31You've got to move and improve things.
10:33It's just sad, because it's memories, isn't it,
10:35that just seem to get bulldozed.
10:37But the memories are up here.
10:39They're not just in the bricks and mortar.
10:41I don't think this individual or singular project
10:44has the ability to remove that year's,
10:47six decades of stigma,
10:49and re-stigmatisation, if you like.
10:51So I think it's going to take more
10:53than the end of one particular part of the community.
10:56For me, it goes back to that point that I made earlier,
10:58which is it's about the social regeneration of the community,
11:01or indeed, over the last 60 years,
11:04it's lack of.
11:06You can physically regenerate a place
11:07and economically regenerate a place,
11:09but if that's not accompanied by a social regeneration,
11:11then you're setting yourself up for an immediate fall.
11:14I had a walk around, and I shouldn't have done,
11:16because it was more or less like a building site,
11:18but I went out the back door and I thought,
11:20the amount of pets that are buried in that back garden
11:22and plastic bags, I pity anyone digging that up.
11:25But it was just sad,
11:27and from my friends and neighbours
11:29that used to come round and sit in the back door,
11:31and it was just, yeah,
11:34it just seemed as if, what a shame.
11:36Aye, I'd have liked it had been saved.
11:38The lovely houses, great houses, great sizes.
11:41So that's my house there, look at that.
11:44Probably be done next week.
11:46You just have memories from the area,
11:48but it's just a shame,
11:49but if it brings bigger and better things,
11:51I'm all for that,
11:53and if it brings affordable housing for people that want it,
11:56yeah, I understand that change has to happen.
12:21.