The Sma' Shot cottages are believed to be amongst the oldest surviving secular buildings in Paisley. The Sma' Shot being the shuttle used in handloom weaving, which also gave it's name to the street. This is the only survivor of the original Shuttle Street, built for an Irish cloth manufacturer in the early 1750s. The first reference to this particular cottage is in a sasine from 1776 when it was bought by another man from Cork. This could have been related to the collapse of Douglas, Heron & Company, also known as the Ayr Bank/Bank of Ayr, initially in 1772 and ultimately in 1773. A sasine is the delivery of feudal property (immovable property) in Scots Law and the record of that delivery/transfer.
Weaving took place in the cottage from 1754 until the late 1860s. The property was tenanted or owned by a member of the same family for over 120 years. A brief break from the textile business occured when a house painter was resident in the period between 1877 and 1886. It then came into the hands of the Hutchison family (no relation) of the wool scouring works in George Place, Paisley. Ownership was again associated with textiles but it continued to be tenanted by people with a variety of occupations.
Threatened with demolition in the 1970s, a Trust was established to buy the cottage due to its importance in the record of Paisley's textile history. The cottage has been restored by the members of the Trust and the Old Paisley Society. Through their work, weaving has again returned to Shuttle Street and the Sma' Shot Cottages.
Please bring a pen.