Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

NEW LANARK, FORMER MECHANICS' WORKSHOPLB37054

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
A
Date Added
12/01/1971
Local Authority
South Lanarkshire
Planning Authority
South Lanarkshire
Burgh
Lanark
NGR
NS 88115 42353
Coordinates
288115, 642353

Description

1806. 2-storey and basement (3 storeys to W), 17-bay, rectangular-plan, pediment-gabled classical block with slightly advanced pedimented central 3 bays and slightly advanced end bays. Random rubble with stugged and droved dressings. Eaves course; blocking course to end bays of E elevation. Long and short quoins. Regular fenestration with tabbed margins. Pediment gables to front and sides with blind oculi and short stacks to apex. 2-leaf timber-panelled front door accessed via ashlar platt oversailing basement; timber-boarded doors to side and rear elevations. W (rear) elevation linked to former dye works by stone arches at right angles to main building (see separate listing for workshops).

16-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Ashlar-coped stacks. Ashlar-coped skews. Grey slates.

INTERIOR: some original woodwork, including timber-boarded doors, survives. Timber floors carried on clustered iron columns (like those found in the School and Institute).

Statement of Special Interest

The building is of considerable historical importance as, along with the former foundry (later dyeworks), they are one of the earliest groups of surviving engineering and foundry buildings in Scotland. The works supplied machinery, millwright work and structural castings not only to New Lanark (enabling the village to be almost self-sufficient) but it also supplied machinery to other mills such as the new water wheel for Stanley Mills in 1811. With its simple classical detailing and regular fenestration The Mechanics' Workshop is also an important visual element at the S end of the mill and village complex.

New Lanark was a pioneering cotton-spinning village that became a model for industrial communities that was to spread across the world in the 19th and 20th centuries and is recognised as being of outstanding importance historically and in visual terms because of its completeness and its physical form. Elements of sophisticated early town planning are evidenced in the orchestration of the various components in the village, from the mill weir, its lade and tunnel to south, to the tunnels and sluices leading off to the individual mills, the crucially generous circulation spaces, gardens, tailored walks and viewing points realised from the start. It is surrounded by an incomparable natural and designed landscape, the mill buildings sitting on the natural terrace to the east of the River Clyde in this deeply incised, wooded river valley.

Built to exploit the water power offered by the Falls of Clyde, the mills were in operation from 1786 to 1968. The mill village is made up of industrial, residential and community buildings, dating predominantly from between 1786 and the 1820s. It was founded by David Dale, a Glasgow merchant, in conjunction with Richard Arkwright, a trailblazing inventor of the cotton spinning industry whose patents enabled operation on a considerable scale. Dale's humane philosophy, realised from the start in the buildings of New Lanark, was expanded by Robert Owen, who took over management of the mill village in partnership from 1799. Under Owen the venture prospered and became one of the world's largest cotton mill centres in the world supporting 2500 people. Owen created an environment where child labour and corporal punishment were abolished, and provided workers with good homes, education and free health care as well as affordable food. He had a profound influence on social developments such as factory reform throughout the 19th century.

Within World Heritage Site inscribed 2001.

List description updated 2010.

References

Bibliography

William Forrest, The County of Lanark from Actual Survey (1816). 1st edition Ordnance Survey map (1857). Historic Scotland, Nomination of New Lanark for inclusion in the World Heritage List, (2000).

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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Printed: 29/03/2024 06:02