New Lanark
Categories: places
Tags: photos, New Lanark
Date: 07 November 2009 21:11:31
Today HD and I drove the short journey to the UNESCO World Heritage Site at New Lanark. When I first moved up here I went a couple of times, as it is a handy place for visitors and new people to be taken, but both times instead of looking round the village we did the walk by the river up to the Falls of Clyde. HD had never been, so this time we had a look round the village, which was built as an integral part of a large set of cotton mills and was very 
ahead of its time in terms of the social reforms incorporated into the community (such as education for all the children, a village shop which bought in food in bulk so it was much cheaper for the workers than going into town for food). The main reformer was the mill manager Robert Owen - there are quotes of his dotted all over the place, this is the one on the front gate to give you an idea of where he was coming from.
One good thing was the Annie McLeod experience, which involved us getting into a two seater seat a bit like a ski-lift or fairground ride and then get taken on a 10 minute ride explaining the daily life for people working 
in the mill, narrated by a 10 year old mill worker. The graphics were good, and there were parts where you rode down a corridor with pinpricks of light that I really liked. Obviously as we were moving the photo didn't really work, but I kind of like the effect anyway!
After that we looked in on a room where the thread was spun, and then went up to the roof garden which gave great views over the entire village. Here are a few photos from that:
