‘The most important experiment’

Workers of the world owe much to an industrial utopia powered by the River Clyde.

WHILE JANE AUSTEN and her ilk enjoyed the high life in Somerset, a very different planned community was taking shape downriver from the picturesque Falls of Clyde in Lanarkshire. Industry, not opulence, was its purpose. New Lanark was founded in 1786 by the benevolent industrialist David Dale in a brief partnership with Richard Arkwright (the cotton tycoon, whose earlier Cromford venture you can read about on page 83). But it is the utopian reforms implemented by Dale’s son-in-law, Robert Owen, that make this model mill village globally important. As manager from 1800, Owen ran New Lanark as a social enterprise. Or as he put it: ‘the most important experiment for the happiness of the human race’. Ten-hour days, compulsory education, worker welfare and fair food pricing all started here.

WALK HERE: Download New Lanark & Falls of Clyde from walk1000miles.co.uk/bonusroutes

NEW THINKING Far from being dark and satanic, working and living conditions at New Lanark were radically humane.