1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pollokshaws

POLLOKSHAWS, a police burgh and burgh of barony of Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the White Cart, now virtually a suburb of Glasgow, with which it is connected by electric tramway and the Glasgow & South-Western and Caledonian railways. Pop. (1901), 11,183. It is named from the shows or woods (and is locally styled “the Shaws”) and the lands of Pollok, which have been held by the Maxwells since the 13th century. The family is now called Stirling-Maxwell, the estate and baronetcy having devolved in 1865 upon Sir William Stirling of Keir, who then assumed the surname of Maxwell. Pollok House adjoins the town on the west. The staple industries are cotton-spinning and weaving, silk-weaving, dyeing, bleaching, calico-printing and the manufacture of chenille and tapestry, besides paper mills, potteries and large engineering works. Pollokshaws was created a burgh of barony in 1813, and is governed by a. council and provost. About 2 m. south-west is the thriving town of Thornliebank (pop. 2452), which owes its existence to the cotton-works established towards the end of the 18th century.