When Owen arrived, New Lanark housed approximately 2000 people. David Dale had been considered quite progressive in his housing policies, but even here most families in the village lived in one-roomed housing. Owen ensured that all the existing houses were improved to provide extra rooms and new ones built for the workers who had to move. He also introduced street paving in his new streets and instigated a street cleaning service throughout the village.
Education for his child workers was something that Owen was extremely passionate about. He wrote in The Social System (1826) that: "To train and educate the rising generation will at all times be the first object of society, to which every other will be subordinate".
The young children went to the nursery and infant schools that Owen had built. Older children worked in the factory but also had to attend his secondary school for part of the day. The schoolhouse was used in the evenings for adult education and dances. Owen was keen to make sure that the children did not just receive rote learning. As well as traditional subjects, the New Lanark children were also taught dancing, music and even drill! Owen was also centuries ahead of his time in banning physical punishments in either his school or factory. Corporal punishment in Scottish state schools was not proscribed until 1980.
Interact is your section. Join in the community - send in your own articles, chat, and tell us what the word 'heritage' means in your part of the country.
Print this page
