Quarrier's Village is a small settlement in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Kilmacolm Kilmacolm () is a village and civil parish in the Inverclyde council area, and the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on the northern slope of the Gryffe Valley, southeast of Greenock and aroun ...

Inverclyde Inverclyde ( sco, Inerclyde, gd, Inbhir Chluaidh, , "mouth of the Clyde") is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Together with the East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire council areas, Inverclyde forms part of the histo ...

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Act. ...

and the historic county of

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfr ...

in the west

Central Lowlands The Central Lowlands, sometimes called the Midland Valley or Central Valley, is a geologically defined area of relatively low-lying land in southern Scotland. It consists of a rift valley between the Highland Boundary Fault to the north and t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It lies within the

Gryffe Valley Strathgryffe or Gryffe Valley ( gd, Srath Ghriobhaidh) is a strath centred on the River Gryffe in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The River Gryffe passes through the council areas of Inverclyde and Renfrewshire, rising in Kilmacolm and joi ...

between the villages of Kilmacolm and

Bridge of Weir Bridge of Weir is a village within the Renfrewshire council area and wider historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Lying within the Gryffe Valley, Bridge of Weir owes its name to the historic crossing point tha ...

, falling on the boundary between the modern Inverclyde and

council areas. Now a residential

commuter village A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

, Quarrier's was constructed as the Orphans Homes of Scotland in the late 19th century by philanthropist

William Quarrier William Quarrier (29 September 1829 – 16 October 1903) was a shoe retailer and philanthropist from Glasgow, Scotland. He was founder of the Quarrier's Village, Orphan Homes of Scotland in Renfrewshire (historic), Renfrewshire, which later evol ...

. In modern times, these orphans' homes and associated buildings have been converted into private housing and some expansion has taken place with new residential development. A charity under the name of

Quarriers Quarriers is a Scottish social care charity based in Quarrier's Village, Inverclyde. It provides care and support for people with a disability, children and families, young people, young homeless people, people with epilepsy and carers. In Fe ...

continues the work of the former homes and is based within the village.

History

The village was founded as the Orphan Homes of Scotland in 1876 by Glasgow shoe-maker and philanthropist

on the site of the former Nittingshill Farm. Quarrier had a vision of a community allowing the young people in his care to thrive, set in a countryside environment and housed in a number of grand residences under a house-mother and father. This vision was realised by a number of donations from Quarrier and his friends. A devout Christian, Quarrier's homes also had a distinct religious ethos. He commissioned the building of Mount Zion Church – known informally as the Children's Cathedral – and his values are also reflected in the naming of streets in the village, such as Faith Avenue, Hope Avenue, Love Avenue, Praise Avenue and Peace Avenue. In 2006, Mount Zion Church decided it could no longer justify such a large premises and moved to one of the nearby homes. The church itself has been converted into private dwellings after the initial rejection of planning permission by the local authority was successfully appealed by the developer to the Scottish Ministers. Until 1999, it was also the site of the

Hospital, opened as a

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

. The main section of the hospital has now been converted into residential flats. Hunter House, also commissioned by Quarrier and completed three years after his death, served as Scotland's only residential epilepsy assessment centre until the facility moved to The William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre, which opened in Glasgow in 2013.

is a registered charity and still functions to help disadvantaged young people, carers and adults with disabilities in the United Kingdom and beyond. However, due to the changing nature of childcare, the number of children being cared for in the village fell dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s, and most of the homes were sold off privately. The village now attracts a number of tourists. Greenock Morton Football Club used to train in the village between 2004 and 2013.

Geography

Quarrier's Village lies within the

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generally ...

of the

immediately south of the

River Gryffe The River Gryfe (or Gryffe) is a river and tributary of the Black Cart Water, running through the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It gives its name to the surrounding Gryffe Valley, also known as Strathgryfe. Flow The Gryfe emerges ...

. The settlement is bisected by the Gotter Water, a tributary of the Gryffe, with the majority of the village standing on its north bank. A number of both vehicle and footbridges cross the Gotter Water within the village whilst the Gryffe is crossed by a road bridge, Craigends Bridge, at the edge of the settlement, and a two pedestrian bridges. One of these footbridges over the Gryffe links the community with the Forth to Clyde cycle route (National Cycle Route 75), which was formerly the line of the

Greenock and Ayrshire Railway The Greenock and Ayrshire Railway ran from Greenock, Scotland to Bridge of Weir, connecting there to the Glasgow and South Western Railway and making a through connection between Glasgow and Greenock. It closed progressively between 1959 and 19 ...

Architecture

Each of the residential houses built in Quarrier's Village were to an individual design, with donors having a large influence in the style in which their cottages were cast, and also the buildings' names. As such, the village is an unusual mix of

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

, French, Old English,

Scottish baronial Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

and Italian. The overall plan of the village is of a more English style than is typical in the area, with a parkland and

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

-type layout. Only three houses in the village can be directly traced to traditional Scottish architecture. Despite this mix of styles, one architect is responsible for virtually the entire old village: Robert Bryden of the Clarke and Bell firm in Glasgow. Bryden worked free of charge on Quarrier's projects over a course of some twenty-eight years.

Local government

Quarrier's Village is part of the

and continues to be associated with it for the purposes of local government. The Kilmacolm Community Council represents its interests to the

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

Inverclyde Council Inverclyde Council is one of the 32 local authorities of Scotland. Created in 1995, its administrative centre is based in Greenock and its territory covers the area of Inverclyde in the west of Scotland, taking over from the local government distr ...

. For local government electoral purposes, Kilmacolm and Quarrier's Village both form part of the Inverclyde East

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

. There is also a residents' association for the village, the Quarrier's Village Council.http://www.inverclyde.gov.uk/NewsR.aspx?id=533

Notes

References

Overview of Quarrier's Village

Gazetteer for Scotland The ''Gazetteer for Scotland'' is a gazetteer covering the geography, history and people of Scotland. It was conceived in 1995 by Bruce Gittings of the University of Edinburgh and David Munro of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and cont ...

External links

Quarrier's charity website
{{authority control Villages in Inverclyde Orphanages in the United Kingdom Strathgryffe Childhood in Scotland