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Monday, 12 July 2021

Lanark, New and Old: Scotland '21 Part 6

The Vision of David Dale & Robert Owen and the Legend of William Wallace

Sun 11-July-2021

Heading South

Scotland

After saying goodbye to Norma and Wilson, we journeyed south from Forres, pausing for a snack lunch on the Perth by-pass and a longer stop in Falkirk. Here we visited the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel (covered in an earlier post) before continuing to Lanark and arriving late afternoon.

Forres to Lanark

Lanark: An Introduction

Lanark
Sth Lanarkshire

The former Royal Burgh of Lanark was once the county town of Lanarkshire, a large and populous county moulded round the River Clyde, with its head in Glasgow and its toes pointing towards the Southern Uplands. Being a small country town (present pop < 10,000), Lanark lost the gig to Hamilton in 1964. In 1996 Scotland redivided its 35 historic counties into 32 Council Districts. Lanark is now in South Lanarkshire - with headquarters still in Hamilton.

I became aware of ‘Lanark’ in the early 60s when late Saturday afternoons meant the melliflously voiced Len Martin reading the football results on Grandstand. I loved the league tables and tidy lists of numbers, and also the magic of the names, particularly the Scottish names. ‘Third Lanark’ played in Scotland’s top division (they then had two large divisions rather than today’s four smaller ones). If the third team was that good, I thought, in what league does the first team play? The club folded in 1967. Only many years later did I discover they were a Glasgow team founded in 1872 by members of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers.

I was never interested in horse racing, but I often endured Len reading the racing results before the main event. Lanark Race Course featured occasionally, but that closed in 1977. An equestrian centre occupies part of the site southeast of the town and we stayed at their B&B. Little remains of the racecourse infrastructure but the state of the art (as of 1928) odds and results board still stands, lonely and neglected - though older photos suggest work has recently been carried out to prevent further deterioration.

Odds and results board Lanark Racecourse

We dined at the Inn on the Loch, the only choice within walking distance of the B&B. They served decent pub food at reasonable prices in a pleasant ambience next to a loch (unsurprisingly) and a golf course. We ate early and returned when the first half of the Euro 2020 (sic) Final was still young. Everybody (who cares) knows what happens, so I’ll just say ‘nice try, England, better luck next time.’

Mon 12-July-2021

New Lanark

David Dale

In the morning we drove the short distance down into the Clyde Valley to New Lanark. We were so early we beat the crowds, almost having a car park to ourselves.

New Lanark from the path down from the car park

Born the son of a village general dealer in 1739, David Dale herded cattle before being apprenticed to a handloom weaver and by 1763 was clerk to a Glasgow silk merchant. He started his own import/export business which grew rapidly and by 1777 he was wealthy and married to the daughter of the former Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

By the 1780s Dale was immensely rich and, like many successful Glasgow businessmen, had acquired a house in the verdant Lanarkshire countryside. In 1784 he was visited by Richard Arkwright whose invention of the ‘water frame’ had mechanised cotton spinning and, by the by, created the world's first factories. This blog crossed his path at Rocester in Staffordshire and Bakewell in Derbyshire.

The bell tower at New Lanark that once called the workers to work

The only waterfalls on the River Clyde lie just south of Lanark. Dale and Arkwright considered the abundant water power, decided the valley below the falls was the perfect place for cotton mills, and set about building them.

Mills beside the Clyde, New Lanark

Dale’s partnership with Arkwright was short-lived. The New Lanark site was perfect and Dale, a philanthropist as well as a businessman, built high quality housing for his workers and looked after them well. His cotton spinning operation became the largest in Britain employing 2,000 workers and attracting many visitors including the Wordsworth’s and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The New Lanark Mill Hotel, formerly (believe it or not) a mill

As was the practice at the time he also employed children, including 300 orphans. Recruited from the workhouses of Glasgow and Edinburgh they toiled from 6 am to 7 pm six days a week in return for board and lodging. This hardly sounds philanthropic by modern standards, but unlike children in other mills they were well fed and given meal breaks during working hours. ‘They were provided with two sets of work clothes which were laundered regularly and a blue dress uniform for Sundays [..and. their...] sleeping quarters were regularly cleaned.’ (Wikipedia, God bless it). Public Health campaigner, Dr James Currie observed ‘The utmost cleanliness, health and order pervaded the whole manufactory. The children looked cheerful and happy with rosy cheeks and chubby countenances.’ (Chubby countenances were a good thing in the 18th century when starvation was the problem, not obesity.)

Dale believed in educating both the orphans and the children of his adult workers. The mill employed as many as 16 trained teachers providing daily day-school for under sixes and evening school for working children.

The entrance to the New Lanark School building

The Falls of Clyde

Having worked our way down to the river we avoided a dinosaur (they are prevalent locally due to a small rift in the space-time continuum)…

Dinosaurs, New Lanark

…and followed signs to the Falls of Clyde. In my imagination, the River Clyde is wide, polluted and lined with ship yards and industrial premises. It is, of course, and this is the same river a mere 20 miles upstream.

The Clyde, New Lanark

The Clyde was dammed above the falls and water led down to drive the mills, at first with waterwheels later with turbines. I suspect most of the infrastructure we passed as we climbed above the stream was from the 1920s hydroelectric scheme.

The main falls were worth the walk. Photographs suggest the quantity of water varies considerably and we saw a good flow - at times it is a miserable trickle.

The Falls of Clyde

We retraced our steps.

Re-entering New Lanark from the riverside walk

Robert Owen and After

In 1800 David Dale sold New Lanark to a partnership headed by his son-in-law the Welsh Socialist Utopian, Robert Owen.

Owen’s plans to further improve the lot of his workers were deemed too expensive by some partners, and he had to bring in new investors, notably the philosopher, Jeremy Bentham. He developed the educational opportunities of his workers’ children and campaigned for a national 8-hour working day which he implemented at New Lanark in 1810.

Robert Owen's House New Lanark

Despite the misgivings of more traditional/authoritarian capitalists, the mills thrived under Owen’s management, but after 25 years he decided it was time to move on to new challenges. New Lanark passed through several hands, remaining largely successful, until the 20th century when war, recession and another war made business difficult and the population started to dwindle. Through the 1960s and 70s cotton was increasing processed near where it was grown and Britain’s once huge cotton industry gradually disappeared. New Lanark submitting to the inevitable in 1968 and soon the village was empty. For a while it was left to decay and was threatened by demolition until the New Lanark Trust took over in 1979.

The Trust restored the buildings, repurposing some as museums, others became holiday cottages, a hotel, a youth hostel and a visitor centre. New Lanark gained UNESCO world heritage status in 2001. And why did we not visit any of the houses or the visitor centre? Because they all close on Mondays, a fact I failed to notice when organising this trip.

(Old) Lanark

The original Lanark is just a kilometre north of New Lanark on the rolling agricultural land above the Clyde gorge ('gorge' is a too dramatic a word, but the Clyde has dug itself in round New Lanark). The town was founded as a Royal Burgh by King David I in 1140 as one of a chain of new towns he hoped would become centres of Norman civilisation and develop trade to increase the material well-being of his people.

Having started at the beginning I shall now leap to the present day and work backwards until I re-encounter the beginning.

Modern(ish) stuff

Lanark is a small, pleasant and apparently prosperous town – meaning that the buildings are in good condition and the High Street shops all have tenants. Unfortunately, Lanark (like Nairn two days ago) is a town in need of a by-pass; The High Street has semi-permanent congestion in one direction or the other (sometimes both).

Lanark High Street looking east, with congested westbound traffic

Having driven to the west end in search of parking, we retuned east on foot, passing the Memorial Hall. Built in 1926 to commemorate the 232 local men who lost their lives in World War One, the hall is a venue for performances and events.

Lanark Memorial Hall

As we discovered in Edinburgh, a burgh needs a kirk, a tolbooth and a merkat (market) cross. We will come to the kirk, I know nothing of the merkat cross, but the tolbooth, originally a council meeting chamber, court house and jail but now a heritage and arts centre, stands on the High Street as it has done since the early 1400s. Obviously the current building is at least 300 years younger than that.

Lanark Tolbooth

Nearby, is one of Scotland’s few remaining Provost’s Lamps. The lamps were traditionally placed outside the home of the Provost (Mayor) and this one dates from the 1890s. It is no longer peripatetic, I presume the current Provost of South Lanarkshire (Ian McAllan at time of visit) provides his own illumination.

The provost's Lamp, Lanark

The parish church of St Nicholas stands at the end of the High Street. A chapel existed on this site in the 13th century, but the current building dates from the 1740s although the interior is 19th century. The church claims to have the world’s oldest bell, founded in 1110 (and recast 1659, 1740 and 1830). The clock on the tower dates from 1744 and the 2.4m high statue in the niche (by Thomas Forrest in 1817) is of William Wallace…

St Nicholas Parish Church, Lanark - we lunched beneath the umbrellas to the left

Old Stuff and William Wallace

.,,,and Wallace links the new(ish) to the older stuff.

Near the church, a plaque claims to mark the marital home of William Wallace. It also records that ‘it was in Lanark in 1297 that Wallace first drew sword to free his native land.’

William Wallace plaque, Lanark

That sword was drawn in the so-called ‘Action at Lanark.’ The only existing account was written by Thomas Grey, whose father, another Thomas Grey, had been present. He wrote (in Anglo-Norman French) that a fracas broke out at a court being held by [William] Heselrig, [Sherrif of Lanark], but Wallace was able to escape with help from a girl who may have been his wife. He then came back with some supporters and attacked Heselrig and his men, killed Heselrig, nearly killed Thomas Grey senior, and set fire to some houses. (The Douglas archives).

The action may have been an isolated incident but was probably part of a co-ordinated uprising against Edward I’s appointees being in positions of power in southern Scotland.

The site of Wallace’s marital home, if such it was, looks somewhat banal today. Traditionally his wife was called Marion Braidfute (renamed Murron MacClannough in the film Braveheart) but her name comes from The Wallace an epic poem written by a minstrel known as ‘Blind Harry’ around 1477 and not noted for historical accuracy. According to Blind Harry, Wallace’s attacked Heselrig in revenge for Heselrig killing Marion Braidfute. There is no record of a Braidfute family in the area, nor of William Wallace’s marriage.

The prosaic site of the William Wallace plaque, Lanark

Although Wallace was a member of the minor nobility nothing is known of his youth - even his father’s name is disputed - but he became a leader of the subsequent uprising. It started well with a victory over King Edward's forces at Stirling Bridge in November 1297, followed by some knightly fun, raiding in northern England. Edward regrouped and in July 1298 won a decisive victory at Falkirk. Wallace decamped to the continent for a few years, returned, was captured and executed in 1305 by being hanged, drawn and quartered, a barbarous punishment, but in keeping with the medieval, if not the modern, view of justice.

Edward died in 1307, his forays into Scotland having little long-term effect. When his son Edward II, took up where dad left off, the result was a catastrophic defeat at Bannockburn (1314).

William Wallace was far more important in legend than he had ever been in life. His effect is still current through the film Braveheart which won many awards, none of them for historical accuracy. Daubing Mel Gibson with woad (1,000 years too late) and dressing him in a tartan kilt (500 years too early) are among the least of its calumnies.

When in Lanark, Wallace would have worshipped at the Church of St Kentigern. Tradition says the church was founded by the saint himself in 603, though it first appears in the historical record in 1150. It is now a ruin standing at a corner of Lanark’s exceptional large graveyard. It is an elegant ruin; the pointed Gothic arches being 12th century at the earliest.

St Kentigern's Church, Lanark

The Romans built a fortification on high ground on the east bank of the Clyde. Several centuries later King David I used the same strategic point to build the castle around which his new Royal Burgh would grow.

Lanark Castle - eagle-eyed readers will spot that it is not there, but it used to be

Having just re-encountered the beginning, I shall, as promised, stop. But first...

Dinner at the Inn on the Loch

After a hard day’s touristing, dinner without a couple of beers or a bottle of wine is unthinkable. To avoid drinking and driving, the only choice was to return to the Inn on the Loch, which was no great hardship.

The Inn on the Loch, Lanark

With no football that required watching we arrived later and lingered longer. Our final day in Scotland ended with a small glass (or two) of malt – Speyburn, since you asked – and the feeling that we should return, sooner rather than later.

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