New Lanark is 25 miles southeast of Glasgow, and is a village on the River Clyde. The village is actually a complex of cotton mill buildings and housing for the workers. It was built in 1786 and is famous for the work done there by the social pioneer Robert Owen. He believed that workers should be educated and incentivised to work hard. We took a guided tour of some of the buildings, and I can thoroughly recommend this as it helped bring the place to life.
The river rushes through here at some speed, so it is easy to see why a water mill was set up here. We found it too cold to walk along the river all the way to the waterfalls, so headed back indoors in the school room. Children used to wear white smocks and were taught about the world outside the classroom. Here’s me and my sis in the school:
And as is our tradition, we had our ice cream (indoors out of the cold!) before driving home!
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