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© courtesy of New Lanark Conservation Trust |
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New Lanark, New Society |
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The Mill before Owen:
© SCRAN
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However, Robert Owen was not the founder of New Lanark; the mills were set up in the 1780's by a Glasgow merchant called David Dale, with support from Richard Arkwright, the Lancashire Cotton King. They were keen to use the water of the nearby Falls of Clyde, which would be used to power the mills; and soon neat rows of tenement housing sprung up round the mills.
Dale would have considered himself an enlightened capitalist, and he did institute some progressive practices at the mill - two hours education after work, and cheap housing were some of his successes. However, although he may be viewed as being compassionate towards his workers, he was also a man of his times and employed 500 children, mostly orphans taken from Edinburgh poorhouses, in 13-hour shifts. During the 1790's, Dale met the young Robert Owen, who, after the deeply religious Dale had accepted his atheism, married his daughter Caroline. In 1799, Owen led a consortium of Liberal mill owners to the purchase of New Lanark for the sum of £60,000.
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