Historical Renfrewshire Maps

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Ordnance Survey
The first national, professionally produced maps were drawn by Ordnance Survey (OS) for Scotland between 1845 and 1878. Most of the Renfrewshire maps carry survey dates between 1856 and 1858.

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The first OS edition has a Name Book for each parish containing useful information including:

• natural features
• industrial sites
• settlements and buildings
• on occasions, the name of the property owner or occupier

Name Books have been transcribed for the parishes of:

• Houston
• Inchinnan
• Kilbarchan
• Lochwinnoch
• Neilston
• Renfrew

and the towns of:

• Johnstone
• Paisley (in two parts)

As part of the first OS edition, very detailed maps of Paisley were produced, at the large scale of 1:500. The ground floor layout is shown for some of the larger buildings, for example the poorhouse and the prison. Paisley is the only town in present day Renfrewshire that was mapped on this scale and only for the 1856-58 edition.


There were three further editions of OS maps for Renfrewshire, in the late 1890s, around 1913 and around 1938. Our collection includes these and more recent OS maps for towns and villages in Renfrewshire.

The OS maps are in various scales including:

• 1:10560 from 1857 to the 1940s
• 1:2500 from 1857 to the 1970s
• 1:5000 for more recent maps

Goad Plans
Goad Plans provide detailed information about town centres and main shopping areas, including the occupiers of shops and their businesses. The plans date from 1982 until present. Our collection includes goad plans for:

• Paisley
• Renfrew
• Johnstone

Specialised maps
Our collection also includes specialised maps for Renfrewshire, covering geology and archaeology.

All of these maps and plans are available to view in the Local Studies Library.

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