Quarrier’s Village
Wilson Davis Fine Art is located in what was once the Village Store, within the picturesque setting of Quarrier's Village, by Bridge of Weir.
Quarriers was founded by William Quarrier over 130 years ago to re-home orphaned and destitute children in Scotland.
A successful Glasgow shoe retailer, Quarrier began caring for orphaned and destitute children in Glasgow in the early 1870's, purchasing the land at Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, and setting up the Orphan Homes of Scotland (now Quarrier's).
Over the next 20 years, the Orphan Homes developed as a self-contained community of more than 40 children's cottages, a church, a large school, a fire station, workshops, farms and other facilities. William Quarrier also opened the first TB sanitarium in Scotland next to the village and set in place plans for a care facility for people with epilepsy, which opened in 1906, three years after Quarrier's death.
During the 1920's and the 1930's, over 1,500 children lived in the village at any one time. In total, between 1878 and the mid 1980's, over 30,000 children were cared for in Quarrier's children's village.
Major changes in childcare practice and legislation caused a drastic reduction in the number of children cared for in Quarriers Village during the 1970's and 1980's. Over the ensuing years, much of the buildings were sold off as private residences and business premises. The village now includes the fine art gallery and framers, artists' studios, and an antiques shop.