New Lanark
20 April 2010, Tuesday
Lovely day but quite cold. Funny thing is that I feel the cold least when compared to Sandra and Linda Martin. Must be my Anglo-Indian blood. Went out before lunch and visited New Lanark. Go here for the website – http://www.newlanark.org/
New Lanark is really something worth seeing. It is an 18th century cotton mill village in the south of Scotland. The following videos are worth seeing because they show the village and the workings of the cotton mill.
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Take time to read about Robert Owen the Mill Manager and his unique approach to his employees. He was certainly ahead of his time. Owen married the daughter of the original owner of the mill and then set about creating working conditions that were representative of his views. Owen seems to be one of a few that actually cared about people.
This overhead views of New Lanark (right) gives a very good idea of the scope of the 
buildings. Power for the cotton mills was supplied by water.
The wheel (left) is a good example of what was used to generate the power needed for the mills.
The workers quarters (right bottom) are now being converted into apartments and people why buy them are allowed to develop the interior to their own tastes provided they leave the exterior as is. We walked along the apartment buildings and some adventurous souls even have outdoor furniture (there is very little sun).
Owen believed in the benefits of education and built a school so that children and adults could attend. The image (left) shows one of the schoolrooms.