Public Consultation & Volunteer Recruitment Sessions
- Saturday 8th November 2025 10am -1pm Paisley Arts Centre, New Street, Paisey
- Session 2 TBC
- Session 3 TBC
- Session 4 TBC
- Session 5 TBC
Public Consultation
November / December 2025
Do graveyards provide a route in to the history of Renfrewshire? Can they play a part in a viable heritage tourism maket in Renfrewshire? We want your views!
The aims of the Consultation is to:
- Gather personal memories and stories about ancestors buried in Renfrewshire’s graveyards.
- Discuss ideas on how these historic sites could be preserved and promoted as heritage tourism assets.
- Provide opportunities for those interested to meet the project team and sign up as volunteers for the research groups.
Today, graveyards such as the Howff in Dundee or Greyfriars in Edinburgh attract numerous tourists. Visitors included those seeking their ancestors and others with a general interest in visting historic places. Why not in Paisley and Renfrewshire? Our smaller historic graveyards hold vast amounts of information on those buried, but this can be a stepping stone to discovering more about the local history of the area, though the people.
Our first Consulation event will be on Saturday 8th November in Paisley Arts Centre, New Street, Paisley between 10am and 1pm. This is a drop in session to learn more about the project and for visitors to give their views on the use of the graveyards. More sessions will follow.
Volunteers
We want the local communities to participate in the project. Two reseach groups will be established to:
- Carry out archaeological based surveys of selected graveyards
- Carry out detailed recordings of the headstones and monuments including new full transcriptions and photography
- Research the history of the graveyard
- Research the family history of selected families that volunteers are drrawn to
In all cases voluteers will be be given training on how to carry out the project activities and access to specific websites for research purposes.
The resuts of the project will be presented on this website, and final publication will also detail the work of the project. The book and website will provide a free accessable resource to the local history and genealogy community for years to come.
If you want to volunteer, please come along to the public consultation sessions or use the conact form to register an interest. It is anticipated the the first meetings of volunteers will be late January 2026.