Editing Netherlee (section)

==History==
[[File:Trees and hillock - geograph.org.uk - 1741323.jpg|thumb|left|The hill where Lee Castle was located]]
In the medieval era, the area of modern Netherlee and [[Clarkston, East Renfrewshire|Clarkston]] was known as the Lands of Lee, centred on Lee Castle.<ref name=portal>[http://www.portaltothepast.co.uk/article/3274/Clarkston-Stamperland--Netherlee Clarkston, Stamperland & Netherlee], Portal to the Past (East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure)</ref> The small hill on which the castle stood is now the small park behind Netherlee Post Office. In the 15th century, the Lands of Lee were split up into Netherlee, and Midlee (now [[Stamperland]]) and Overlee (both now part of neighbouring Clarkston).<ref name="Nisbet">{{cite book|last=Nisbet|first=Douglas|title=Old Clarkston and Netherlee|year=2007|publisher=Stenlake|location=Catrine|isbn=9781840333893|page=3}}</ref> From the 1660s onwards, the Maxwell family of Bogton, (which extended into modern [[Muirend]]) developed the original Williamwood House and the surrounding Williamwood Estate. The house was built adjacent to the site of Lee Castle, the latter being demolished around this time.<ref>{{cite web|title=Netherlee|url=http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/307542/details/netherlee/|work=Canmore|publisher=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland|accessdate=11 February 2014}}</ref>

The original hamlet of Netherlee developed in connection with a paper mill which was opened on the western bank of the [[White Cart Water]] around 1700. Towards the end of the 18th century, the Netherlee House mansion was built by one of the mill's owners, John Muir. By the 1790s, Netherlee had expanded from the riverside to a new village centre on the main road from [[Glasgow]] to [[Kilmarnock]] (now the location of MacLaren Place). In the 1830s the mill became a calico printworks, which provided the main source of employment in the area until the 1880s.<ref name="Nisbet"/><ref name=portal/>

The early years of the 20th century saw the first phase of urbanisation. New housing developments, typically red sandstone terraces, began to eat up former agricultural land. Due to building restrictions as a result of the First World War, however, it was not until the 1920s that the majority of residential streets off the main artery were fully developed as they appear today.<ref name=portal/> Netherlee in the mid-1930s was mostly as it is today, with the construction of the parish church, primary school and the MacLaren Place building.