Dark satanic mills

Saltaire, Lanark and CromfordRelated file: time adverbs

Industrial pollution

Cities polluted with soot

Smokestack industries = highly polluting factories

Cities blackened by smokeDirt and dustOvercrowdingLitter (garbage, refuse)Sewage problemsTenements (shady hovels)

New Lanark Cotton Mill

As early as 1783 David Dale, son of a grocer, and prosperous cloth merchant accompanied by Richard Arkwright visited Lanark waterfall and wondered if the power of all this water could be harnessed to drive cotton spinning machines. A few years before, Arkwright had invented one called "the water-frame“. The two men intended to incorporate these machines in one location and use a common source of power to drive them all.Within ten years Dale built a new village, (eventually 2500 people lived and worked there) called New Lanark, centered around his new mill factories. Many of the families who worked in them came from the Highlands looking for a better life after the clearances and must surely never have seen buildings so large with so many floors.

Robert Owen’s New Lanark• New Lanark soon made good profits.

Owen's life's ambition was to benefit humanity, not only through productivity and profits, but also by bettering the lot of his employees.

• New Lanark became world renowned as one of the earliest experiments in creating a civilised working environment and improved living conditions for a workforce as part of a large scale mechanised industrial process. Apart from the schools and religious meeting places, comfortable terraced houses were eventually built for the workers and their families, gas lighting was provided, cleanliness encouraged and a village store set up.

Lanark mills

In an age when children were often illiterate and exploited he introduced the idea of education for all and the then revolutionary idea that children should not be allowed to work in the mills before the age of ten. In 1809 he established Nursery Buildings to improve living conditions of children and apprentices, and in 1816 The Institute for the Formation of Character, at first a school and later religious meeting place, dance and concert hall. Later on, in 1817 The School for Children was founded for the education of children between the ages of one and ten.

CROMFORD MILL• Cromford Mill, the world’s first

successful water powered cotton spinning mill, was built in 1771 by Sir Richard Arkwright. From then until around 1790, he continued to develop the mills, warehouses and workshops, which now form the Cromford Mills site.

However, problems with the water supply around 1840 imposed severe limitations on textile production at Cromford Mill and the buildings were thereafter put to other uses (a brewery, laundries, and cheese warehousing!).

Finally, in 1922, the site was used as a colour works: from then on it produced colour pigments for paints.

Cromford Mill

It was not until the modern buildings had been cleared away and new historical and archaeological research had been completed that the true value of the site was recognised. This reappraisal led to an upgrading of the listing and the entire site now enjoys Grade I status and is part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

The Derwent Valley Mills

SALTAIRE WORLD HERITAGE SITE

Saltaire wool textile mill first opened in 1853 and was turned into a great massive cultural space including 3 floors devoted to music, the theatre and the arts. It was converted into a World Heritage site in 2001.

Watch David Weber film about the restoration of Saltaire Roberts Park on YouTube to understand what was so special about this township and gardens.

Industrial World Heritage Sites

DEBATING PRESERVATION ISSUES: Should all historical buildings be listed and

preserved ?

To refurbish / revamp a redundant buildingTo transform a building into…To preserve / to enhance / to show / to display / to exhibitIndustrial heritageTo recount / to tell the visitors / to explainTo testify to / to evidence / to demonstrateA (historical, architectural) landmarkTo keep some original elements, the facade (main elevation), the structure, the opening, the machine rooms, etc.