Farm was our rustic oasis

WE REVISIT DEREK PARKER'S RAMBLES THROUGH RENFREWSHIRE

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I shall always have happy memories of Greenhill Farm.

A century ago, the steading - with its white lime-washed walls and smoking chimney - crested the emerald hill top, after which it was named, high above wooded Elderslie Glen.

It looked down to weavers’ cottages and the massive Elderslie cotton-spinning mill, which later became the Semple and Peck overall-manufacturing factory.

Even when semi-surrounded with private and council housing estates between the two world wars, the farm was a rustic oasis in an urbanised landscape.

Greenhill was run by Guy Houston, with help from his brother, Billy, and sister Nancy.