View from NW of Counting House at N end of Caithness Row

Description View from NW of Counting House at N end of Caithness Row

Date 12/6/2002

Catalogue Number SC 755049

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of E 32593 CN

Scope and Content The Counting House & Nos 1-8 Caithness Row, New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, from north-west This shows the Counting House which was added between 1810 and 1816 to Caithness Row which was built around 1792. The three-bayed bow has a central doorway with 12-paned astragal windows at each side. Caithness Row is named after the Scottish county which was the origin of some of the Highlanders who worked in the village. The Counting House was where mill workers would be issued with their weekly wage tickets that could be exchanged for products at the company's store. The store offered food and goods at reduced prices and was an early form of cooperative. The Counting House still retains its original iron safe and fireplace. 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.

External Reference Original: E32593/CN

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/755049

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap