View from NNW of NE side of Braxfield Row

Description View from NNW of NE side of Braxfield Row

Date 12/6/2002

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

Catalogue Number E 32582 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 755038

Scope and Content Nos 1-10 Braxfield Row, New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, from north-north-west This shows the road leading to the village and part of Nos 1-10 Braxfield Row which was built in the late 18th century. The building is split into ten tenements and the north-east front, seen here, is two-and three-storeyed, but, because the building is built on a steep slope, the south-west front is four-and five-storeyed. The door and window surrounds are of dressed freestone and some of the buildings have forestairs. Mill workers and their families mainly lived in single-roomed flats in these tenements although larger families may have been allowed more space. Living conditions were good for the time but poor by modern day standards. The only source of water was from public wells or the River Clyde and sewage was stored in public dung heaps. Since 1975 each of these tenements have been restored into individual houses and are now privately owned. 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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