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New Lanark, Scotland

This image is by R.Pollack and is copyright free

New Lanark in southern Scotland was founded in the eighteenth century by David Dale. It was one of a number of villages built around water powered cotton mills at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Britain at this time was moving from a primarily rural population to a primarily urban one. During this period of industrialisation villages would be viewed with nostalgia, as a place where everybody knew your name. In the nineteenth century thousands of people would visit the picturesque village of Clovelly in north Devon, for example, trying to rediscover seemingly more innocent times for a few hours. In many ways a nostalgic view of villages is misleading, but this did not stop people trying to find the largely imagined qualities of the past. The village of New Lanark became famous in the period 1800 - 1825 when mill manager Robert Owen instituted changes that stood in stark contrast to trends in much of the rest of the country. Child labour and corporal punishment were abolished. Villagers were provided with good housing, educational opportunities, free healthcare and affordable food. People naturally associated this liberal regime with the fact that New Lanark was a village. In reality it probably had more to do with the remarkable personality of Robert Owen. Rather than simply being a illustration of a better way of living, New Lanark is a reminder of the preoccupations of the nineteenth century. People at this time were living through one of the most significant periods of change in human history. They reacted against the new science and technology by inventing the innocence of childhood, and the imagined worlds of children's literature; they read Tennyson's romantic tales of King Arthur; they were interested in mesmerism. And they were nostalgic about village life, associating it with better, more innocent times. David Dale's New Lanark was a way of living the new life in what seemed like the old way.

Today New Lanark has been restored and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Scotland, with about 400 000 people visiting each year. There is a visitors' centre where the history of the village is imaginatively portrayed. The old mill buildings house coffee and gift shops, and an outlet of the Edinburgh Woolen Mill.

Opening Times: The visitor centre is open daily September - May, 11am - 5pm and June - August 10.30am - 5pm. It is closed 25th December and 1st January.

Directions: New Lanark is near Lanark, just off the A73. The village is about an hour's drive from Edinburgh or Glasgow, and is well signposted from the M74 and the M8. Click here for an interactive map centred on New Lanark.

Access: most of the visitors' centre is accessible to wheelchair users. A free leaflet detailing arrangements for people with mobility problems is available from the visitors' centre.

Contact:

phone: +44 1555 661345

web site: www.newlanark.org