Posted:  Thursday 23 July 2009

North East Associates
visit to
New Lanark World Heritage Site

What an amazing place this was, that 88 North East Associates came to visit on Wednesday 15th July - New Lanark World Heritage Site.  It is a beautifully restored 18th century cotton mill village nestled in the spectacular south Lanarkshire valley in southern Scotland, but what is important about it is that this was developed into a community providing education and welfare under the guidance of one Robert Owen.  That this happened in the early 18 hundreds is what makes it remarkable as elsewhere working conditions were extremely poor.  Owen's ideas evolved into the principles behind the Co-operative shops and he was a key thinker responsible for the early development of socialism.



Our journey from Newcastle had been longer than anticipated as a consequence of slow moving traffic on the A69, so we arrived just in time to get our tickets and then proceed to the Pantry in Mill 3 where an excellent lunch of chicken & leek pie followed by caramel flan with ice cream was served to us by a very efficient catering team.



Following lunch we were free to explore the site independently.  Some chose to start off their tour with the Annie McLeod Experience Ride where two person cars transport visitors through a series of audio/visual scenarios guided by the ghost of Annie McLeod.
Some chose to take the fairly long walk up river from the mill to the Falls of Clyde, which were a bit less spectacular than usual because of preceding dry weather.



There was the mill workers' house, the village shop, the school, and Robert Owen's house to explore all of which have been restored to be like they were almost 200 years ago.  On one floor of the mill the spinning mule driven by the water mill, was in use, spinning wool which is still sold on-line and from the gift shop.



Throughout the day various members of our party expressed surprise that Robert Owen's ideas were so far ahead of his time, and clearly he had had so much influence on social development, yet we were not previously aware of him.



On our way home, by the time we got back to the A69, a large section of roadworks had become established resulting in a long wait in a very long line of traffic.  Once through that of course we were again in the middle of a very long procession of slow moving vehicles such that our arrival back in Newcastle was about an hour later than planned, around 8:00pm.

photos jec & hlp

JEC  23/07/09

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