New Lanark is a village in Scotland which gained celebrity as the place where the experimenting of the utopian socialist theories of Robert Owen – an illuminated entrepreneur – took place.
The village itself rises upon the River Clyde, forty kilometres from the city of Glasgow, and it was built in 1784 by the textile businessman, David Dale, with the assistance and collaboration of the engineer, Richard Arkwright. It was thanks to its ideal position beside the river that the two engineers would manage to exploit the energy of the water in order to “fuel” the new textile machinery that had been invented by Arkwright.

Caroline Dale, David Dale’s daughter, married Robert Owen and, in 1800, the latter took over the land and the factory from his father-in-law. Such a fortuitous move had never, till that moment, been made! Robert Owen, the keenest of entrepreneurs after his successes in the management of his cotton-mills in Manchester, wanted to further apply his ideal principles in New Lanark where he would also put into second place his own commercial interests.

In 1813, Owen published four essays in which he summarised his philosophy. He did not recognise himself in any religious belief and, therefore, felt that the character of Mankind was formed by the circumstances in which a person was found to live and over which he or she had no control. It was precisely for this reason that Robert Owen believed it fundamental that each and every child, at the youngest of ages, should be set upon the right direction. A direction, that is, which would lead him or her towards a good social, physical and moral education within a world of art, of free thought and with no sign of violence so that ideal circumstances would be created in which new generations might be brought up and shaped.

Owen’s great and enlightened revolution was, for this reason, to put into practice in New Lanark what had until that moment only been theorised by means of a sequence of measures. The first of these measures concerned the setting up of the Nursery Buildings, the first institution of its type in the United Kingdom aimed at the safeguard and the education of young people. Owen took these young people out of the factories (five hundred were employed in New Lanark alone). Before its setting up children were exploited in factories all over the nation. In 1816, it was the turn of the Institute for the Formation of Character: a school and a place for the recreation and the socialising of the village’s inhabitants.

The three rooms on the lower floor will be left open for the use of the adults in the village, all of whom will be given the means to read, write, do sums, sew or play, converse or walk about. Two evenings a week will be dedicated to dance and to music but, on these occasions too, all comfort and convenience will still continue to be given to those who wish to study or keep doing any of the other occupations carried out on the other evenings.

Furthermore, in 1817, Robert Owen founded the Nursery and Infant School for children until the age of ten years old. Punishment was not admitted in the School and the lessons were about art, music, literature, history and geography. As well as education for the very young, Robert Owen was also interested in all of the village’s inhabitants. They had the right to free medical assistance, to a sickness fund and would also be able to turn to a savings bank. The village shop supplied food and household products at moderate prices and the sale of alcoholic drinks was very strictly controlled. Until Owen’s arrival, these very same shops sold the shoddiest of products – along with alcohol – at the highest of prices. In the factory itself, at each worker’s workplace, Owen installed a coloured cube which represented both the quality and the quantity of the production. This proved an incentive for the workers to do their utmost and, indeed, this particular measure, as well as other measures, soon gave fruit. New Lanark became, right from the beginning of the 1820’s, the very first cotton-producing centre in the whole of Great Britain.

After several years of disagreement with his partners, Robert Owen left the management in 1825. He did not, however, abandon his revolutionary projects. In 1826, he set out upon a new social experiment in America, in the city of New Harmony, in Indiana. Unfortunately, his project failed within a couple of years. Afterwards, Owen dedicated his life to workers’ protection activities in London – especially in the area of the Trades Unions – and, lastly, was the organiser of workers’ cooperatives.

In 1974, the New Lanark Conservation Trust was set up. It is aimed at safeguarding the village and bringing it back to life once again. Some of the original buildings have been turned into museums and the village has been a World Heritage Site since 2005.