Robert Owen and New Lanark

Monday, a visit to New Lanark. This is a World Heritage Site, not far from Glasgow. On Monday we decided to make a visit. This was a large cotton mill complex owned by Robert Owen. An early industrialist, but more unusually very enlightened by the standards of his age. Providing various welfare benefits including health care and education for his employees and there families.

New Lanark is operated by a Trust and is beautifully maintained. Surprisingly much of it is inhabited and the complex includes a hotel. As far as the museum aspects are concerned it is well worth a visit. There is working machinery still being used, though no child labour these days. Times change I suppose.

A very interesting visit. It stirred hazy memories from my school days as I remember we studied Robert Owen as part of the reforms introduced during the industrial revolution. Robert Owen's house is on the right, and the accommodation for the workers on the left. The mills are out of the picture down to the right. The mills were largely water powered so are in the valley next to a very fast flowing River Clyde.

The whole village is in the valley, and it is a steep ascent up to the town of Lanark. Robert Owen himself later moved to a rather grander house outside New Lanark, and also founded a settlement in the United States based on his enlightened ethics. This proved an expensive failure, though one of his sons was elected to Congress. Robert Owen himself returned to the UK.