New Lanark Mills , New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, was founded by David Dale (1739-1806) and Richard Arkwright (1732-1792) in 1784 as a cotton spinning company. Not only did the company produce cotton, but the town of New Lanark that developed around the mills was an experiment by Dale in education and community living. Workers were well-housed, orphans cared for, yet religion was never taught or forced upon the community. The Lanark Twist Co purchased the company in 1799 with Robert Owen (1771-1858), Dale's son-in-law, as part-proprietor and sole manager. Owen continued the ideas of social development as instigated by Dale, stocking the village shop with cost-price goods, operating a nursery so that women could work and opening the New Institue for the Formation of Character where children and young people were taught music, singing and dancing. Henry Birkmyre formed a partnership with his brother-in-law Robert Galbraith Somerville in 1881 to purchase New Lanark Mills and he was actively engaged in managing the Mills and Gourock Ropeworks Co until he retired in 1895. Under Birkmyre's supervision, the manufacture of fishing nets from cotton spun at the mills was introduced and skilled operatives and patent net-looms were imported to New Lanark from Refrewshire and elsewhere in Scotland. The manufacture of nets from cotton was a comparatively recent innovation, but Birkmyre clearly sought to exploit markets created through his shipping interests. The partnership was dissolved in 1888 when Birkmyre took over sole proprietorship of the works. A new partnership was formed in 1894 between Henry and his sons William, James and John. The firm was amalgamated with the Gourock Ropeworks Co (established 1736) to form the Gourock Ropeworks Co Ltd (rope makers and textile manufacturers: 1903-1970: Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire) in 1903 . The Gourock Ropework Co Ltd became part of Bridon Ropes Ltd in 1970 when it was taken over by Bridon Fibres & Plastics Ltd. The works at New Lanark finally closed in 1967 and is now a World Heritage site. The wesbite can be found here.
Sources: Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland(London, 1994)
From the guide to the Records of Gourock Ropeworks Co Ltd, New Lanark Mills material, 1795-1967, (Glasgow University Archive Services)
