New Lanark Scotland

The Industrial Revolution brought many changes…both good and bad. Take a trip back in history with us to one of the better changes.

Welcome to Scotland.

Welcome to the model industrial community of New Lanark. 

We are about 40 km south east of Glasgow on the banks of the River Clyde.

The town of Lanark is the one you will come to first. Follow the signs down towards the river and you will come to a large parking lot part way down the river bank. Park and walk the rest of the way down to New Lanark.

(You can alternatively take a mini bus from Lanark down to New Lanark.)

Here at this World Heritage Site we step back in time to the 18th century and experience life in a cotton mill town.

The falls on the River Clyde made this an ideal spot to build a cotton mill. If you remember your history, cotton material was very much in demand. If you think back to the technology available at the time, water wheels provided the power needed to run the mill. Hence, a cotton mill at this location was viable.

To build and operate the mill one needed a lot of people. Thinking back to literature written during and/or about this time period, you know the difficult, often deplorable, living conditions experienced by people moving to areas like this during the Industrial Revolution.

New Lanark was different.

Robert Owen and his father-in-law set out to make their mill town a model industrial community.

Worker safety was taken into consideration when designing the lighting and space.

I had a chance to sit down with one of the mill girls to learn about the conditions here.

While not ideal by today’s standards, the mill in New Lanark was luxury compared to working conditions in many other factories.

-Here at  New Lanark workers and their families were provided with housing.

-Wages were fair.

-Health care was provided.

-Education for the children was provided.

In fact, the world’s first workplace nursery school was here in New Lanark.

Have a close look at the globe in the classroom.

(Hint: click on the photo to enlarge it so you can read the words.) 

Notice all the “Parts Unknown”.

-The company store operated at a high level of quality and profits were shared with the workers. (led to co-operative movement…see, I remember some of my high school history!)

Social reformers like Robert Owen most likely would have been scoffed at by many mill owners for providing all these “benefits”. (my opinion, but quite feasible don’t you think)

These were radical innovations for this period of time! I am sure that as businessmen these decisions were made to keep good workers and increase productivity, but they also must have been made with a higher sense of humanity.

Today New Lanark is a World Heritage Site which attracts tourists who want to experience an 18th century model industrial community…but it also boasts a hotel, a restaurant, and a hostel.

Visit more of Scotland, click here.

and/or

Visit other countries, click here. 

Happy travels!