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UNESCO World Heritage Site, New Lanark Mills
Audio-visual Millennium Experience at New Lanark Mills
Falls of Clyde, New Lanark Mills
New Lanark Mill Workers, at New Lanark Mills, 1901
Robert Owen (1771-1858)Robert Owen Biography, New Lanark Unesco World Heritage Site
The huge complex of New Lanark Mills is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and a unique opportunity to learn more about the co-operative visiion of Robert Owen and early philanthropists.
In the 1800s the cotton which arrived from New Lanark to Russia was referred to as 'Picture-Yarn'. Robert Owen, manager of New Lanark from 1800 to 1825 had commissioned John Winning to create pictures of New Lanark Mills for labels. Robert Owen spawned many ideas years ahead of their time although many had already come from his father in law David Dale.
UNESCO World Heritage Site New Lanark Mills History
The unique 18th century cotton mill complex at New Lanark, now restored and with UNESCO World Heritage status, is an important historic site within not just Scottish industrial history but also as an example of a working co-operative. One man particularly is associated with New Lanark. Although founded by the English inventor and pioneer Richard Arkwright and the Glasgow banker and entrepeneur David Dale, it was under the lead of the pioneer of the co-operative, Robert Owen that New Lanark Mill is best known. Owen's connection with New Lanark came via a business trip to Glasgow and a meeting with David Dale's daughter Caroline Dale, who recommended he pay a visit to New Lanark. He did, and the couple were to marry later. Owen's management of New Lanark was from 1800 to 1825.
Locating a Mill at New Lanark was a shrewd move by Arkwright and Dale. Water provided power with the fast flowing Clyde (the Falls of Clyde are a distinctive waterfall on the New Lanark site still, and before Arkwright and Dale set to work here, the Falls of Clyde were famed for their beauty and painted by many. Jacob More's 'painting of the Falls of Clyde (1771) is probably the best known and on show in the National Gallery of Scotland. Transport links between Glasgow and New Lanark however were poor, but the pair were prepared to invest in improving this. Dale actually left the partnership in 1786, but Arkwright pushed on, despite his first mill burning to the ground. By 1793, Arkwright had 4 working mills on the New Lanark site, with mill 4 the largest at 150 feet long and 30 feet wide, and from 50 to 75 workers creating what would have been a deafening noise.
In its early days, New Lanark mills had a huge number of children working in them. In 1793 of the 1157 people working here, 800 of them were young children of both sex. Many of the children came from Glasgow and Edinburgh orphanages. Standards of hygiene were high within the context of the day - far from luxury living, it was a hard life, but bed straw was regularly change, rooms white washed, clothing washed regularly and so on, resulting in a very low mortality rate. A large number of workers were also Highland Immigrants, mostly from Caithness, Inverness and Argyleshire. Education was provided on-site for the children, even the under sixes which was practicularly unheard of in its day. By 1796, 16 teachers were employed at New Lanark.
Robert Owen arrived for his first visit at New Lanark in 1798, and in the following year Owen married David Dale's daughter Caroline, and a year after that he became the manager at New Lanark. Interestingly at first Owen's drive was economically focused - he increased working hours from 13 to 14 and introduced more discipline, The philanthropic aspects of his vision evolved over the years, rather than being introduced at the off-set. Owen abhorred the abuses in child labour and the dire conditions of workers. He believed that blending philanthropy with economic advantage was the answer. "All the houses in the village form parts of the establishment all united and working together as one machine, proceeding day by day with the regularity of clockwork", wrote Owen. He also believed that through education, both crime and poverty would disappear. At New Lanark the New Institution for the Formation of Character built after 1809 came directly from Owen's belief that education was the key to a better society. His ideas were modern for their day, and the influence was wide spawning utopian styled settlements at New Harmony in the US, and even influencing industrialists to some extent in the UK, spawning paternalist styled working villages at Saltaire and Port Sunlight. Owen's particular brand of democratic socialism is perceived today as the beginnings of the co-operative movement UK.
Visiting New Lanark Unesco World Heritage Site
New Lanark UNESCO World Heritage Site today blends the history of New Lanark Mills and Robert Owen biography with a plethora of services including hotels, conference facilities, wedding services, kids parties, wildlife centre, trails and walks along the Clyde taking in the sublime still Falls of Clyde, shopping with an Edinburgh Woollen Mill on-site, a large cafe/restaurant and a series of events including Victorian Fairs and Christmas Fairs running throughout the year.
New Lanark Mills does well for its accessibility to children. The visitor centre here has won awards, particularly for its Millennium Experience where you're transported on a ride through a slick audio-visual presentation of the history of New Lanark, the workers here and Robert Owen presented by visual images of children who live in the future. It's an idea that works, as does the Annie McLeod Story, a mill girl ghost who appears on stage.
As well as the Millennium Experience (the first part of the New Lanark tour), Robert Owen's house, millworkers' houses, Robert Owen's School and Annie McLeod's story, the Scottish Wildlife Trust Centre and path to the Falls of Clyde, a hotel and youth hostel and gift shop are all on-site.
New Lanark World Heritage Site, South Lanarkshire, Scotland ML11 9DB. Tel. 01555 661345. (weblink right for details).
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