Linwood Lade

...200 years of heritage, from powering mills to nurturing nature

Carts Greenspace has been investigating the possibility of Linwood Lade being declared a statutory Local Nature Reserve by Renfrewshire Council, using powers which local authorities hold under the 1949 National Parks & Access to the Countryside Act. If you have any views on this proposal or could provide us with additional information about this interesting site, please contact us at the points given below.

Sandwiched between the dual carriage-way of the A737 Johnstone by-pass and the A761 Kashmir Drive on the southern edge of Linwood is a secluded slice of greenspace which conceals a rich mixture of natural and his-toric heritage de-lights.
Parts of the area lie beside the fast flow-ing Black Cart Wa-ter and there is also an attractive net-work of paths fol-lowing the banks of a lade which may be more than 200 years old. This used to flow strongly too because it was used to transport a sup-ply of water to Linwood’s mills. Now the water is almost stagnant, like an elongated pond, but this has allowed aquatic vegetation to colonise along with many water creatures, including Pond Skaters, Whirlygig Beetles and the Common Toad which spawns in the water each spring.

Exploring its Wildlife and History...
Yellow Flag Iris is a spectacular plant of swampy areas, typically flowering in June and attractive to bumble bees.
A good variety of typical wood-land wildflowers can be found, including Wood Avens, Lesser Celandine, Pignut, Dog Violet, Garlic Mustard, Bluebell and the orchid Broad-leaved Helleborine.
14 different species of grass have been found already and these are accompanied by typical grassland flowers like Yarrow, Sorrel, Lady’s Mantle, Lady’s Smock and Meadow Cranesbill.
The water and wetland plants are the real feature, however, and these include Water Forget-me-not, Water Lily, Yellow Flag Iris, Water Plantain, Hem-lock Water Dropwort, Angelica and Meadowsweet.

Historic Heritage
Published architectural guides and early Ordnance Survey maps suggest the lade was constructed in the 1790s to serve the Linwood mill, which was designed to employ 1,800 workers. By 1843 the lade is shown on maps as supplying water to three premises, the Mill of Cart (now under the A737) near its upstream end and both a major cotton mill and a separate print mill at the downstream end in the growing village of Lin-wood.

Waterside and Woodland Wildlife
The site’s relative lack of disturbance over a period of two centuries and its proximity to a the natural wild-life corridor formed by the Black Cart Water means that it has developed a surprising wealth of wildlife, considering its urban location, a long legacy of indus-trial activities nearby and the fact that it is hemmed in by busy transport routes.
For example, wildlife surveys completed in 2007 dis-covered 105 different species of wild and naturalised higher plants. One of these species, Green Figwort, has been classified as being nationally scarce and a further three species have been classi-fied as “uncommon” because of their restricted national distributions. In addition, 26 different types of bird were seen in 2007. 13 of these bird species probably bred on the site and, once again, some of these are of conservation significance: Reed Bunting, Song Thrush and Starling popu-lations have all declined nationally by more than 50% in the past 25 years.
We already knew that the Black Cart Water holds a small population of Otters and reasonable numbers of Atlantic Salmon, both species covered by Euro-pean legislation, but the diversity of aquatic wildlife revealed in the lade has been a bonus. Apart from the Toads, we suspect that other amphibians spawn there. Two different damselflies have been spotted flying above the lade, suggesting that there are plenty of small water beasties for their voracious aquatic larvae to eat.

Remember to leave your comments on this on the message board!

Carts Greenspace

Carts Greenspace aims to create new greenspaces and enhance existing open spaces.
c/o Planning & Transport Department, Renfrewshire Council, Cotton Street, Paisley PA1 1LL
Telephone: 0141 842 5272
Web: www.cartsgreenspace.org.uk
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it