Counting House

Many of the early workers at New Lanark were Highlanders whom David Dale employed when their planned emigration to the New World foundered in 1791. To prevent this new ‘workforce’ from leaving the village, he promised to build housing for 200 families and was as good as his word.
Caithness Row was finished in 1793 and was named after the homeland of most of the would-be emigrants to make them feel ‘at home.’

The rounded end of the Row was added by Robert Owen as a Counting House. From this office in the very heart of the village, Owen often looked out of the window and was able to ‘spy’ on the entire workforce. It was in the counting house that he regularly paid out the weekly wages from an imposing iron safe.

Here, too, he was able to oversee their use of the village store where the workers were able to buy all their needs at far better prices than those normally charged at that time elsewhere in Scotland.

ACTIVITY

1. Explain how so many Highlanders ended up working at New Lanark.

2. What incentive did Dale promise the Highland workers to keep them from leaving the village?

3. Why is Caithness Row so called?

4. What was the purpose of the Counting House? Who regularly worked there and why?

5. Can you think of a major reason why Owen was so keen to 'keep an eye on' what the workers were buying in the village store?

6.Sketch or draw the Counting House. Explain why it is the shape it is.