View from SE of site of Mantilla Row, which was dismantled because of its dangerous state with the aim of re-re-erection at a future date

Description View from SE of site of Mantilla Row, which was dismantled because of its dangerous state with the aim of re-re-erection at a future date

Date 12/6/2002

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

Catalogue Number E 32628

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 755083

Scope and Content Nos 1-3 Mantilla Row, New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, from south-east This shows the site of Nos 1-3 Mantilla Row (centre) which was built in the late 18th century and was demolished in 1988. The nine-bayed building was split into three tenements and was two-storeyed on the north, but, because the building was built on a slope, the south front was three-storeyed. The long-term plan is to rebuild these tenements. Part of Nos 1-24 Double Row is visible on the left. 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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