Elevated view from NW of N side of Long Row

Description Elevated view from NW of N side of Long Row

Date 12/6/2002

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number E 32561 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 755017

Scope and Content Nos 1-26 Long Row, New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, from north-west This shows part of the north front of Nos 1-26 Long Row which was built in the late 18th century. The building is split into 14 tenements and is two-storeyed on the north (seen here), but, because the building is built on a slope, the south front is three-storeyed. The buildings in the background are all part of the mill complex. The tenements had no running water or toilets and often people would sleep on beds on wheels (hurley beds) that were kept under the built-in box-beds. Although cramped by modern standards these buildings were forward thinking for their time and Robert Owen ensured that sewage was removed from the dung heaps outside and that there was a fresh water supply from a well. Since 1977 each of these tenements have been restored into single houses and ten of them are privately owned with four let by the New Lanark Association. New Lanark was founded c.1785 by David Dale (1739-1806), a Glasgow merchant, and Richard Arkwright (1732-92), inventor of a water-frame for cotton spinning. Powered by water flowing from the Falls of Clyde the first cotton mill opened in 1786 and by 1799 the complex was the largest of its kind in Scotland. Robert Owen (1771-1858), who was married to David Dale's daughter, was one of a group who bought the mills in 1800. He transformed them into a model industrial community with good working conditions, houses, a non-profit store, a school and an institute for workers. Owen's partners bought the mills in 1828 and operated them until 1881 when another partnership took over. The Gourock Ropework Company ran the site until 1968 which is now mainly under the care of the New Lanark Conservation Trust (founded 1974-5). New Lanark was designated a World Heritage Site in 2001. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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