Event

Back To The 1930s at New Lanark

1930s day new lanark three women in period outfits

Put your 1930’s glad rags on, step back in time and come and join all the fun at New Lanark this September!

Enjoy live music all afternoon from two, five piece bands; The Tenement Jazz Band and  Award winning best jazz vocalist Ali Affleck and Speakeasy swing (Scottish Jazz Awards 2014) with their vivacious stage presence, for a wild ‘joie de vivre’ celebration of music and fun.

Visitors to the 'Back To The 1930s at New Lanark' will be able to enjoy a wide selection of activities including circus performers and circus skills workshop, traditional craft and trades demonstrations, which include Traditional Sign writing, Millinery, Spinning, Weaving, Stonemasonry. You can also sit back and enjoy a 1930’s Cinema,  Vintage Food stalls, Speakeasy Gin Bar, Pop-up 1930’s New Lanark and The Gourock Ropework Company exhibition, Children’s Vintage Games and Crafts.

Step back in time and experience the changes which were beginning to take place at New Lanark post the Victorian era. These ranged from the modernisation of the mills, to the introduction of mill and steam engines and to the advent of photography. If you visit the Millworkers House exhibition at New Lanark you can see two houses. One is a reconstruction of an 1820s house, and shows you what it would be like to live in New Lanark just before the Victorian times. The other is a reconstruction of a 1930s millworkers house, just after the Victorian times. By comparing the two houses you can see some of the changes that took place in the home during the Victorian period.

This event is part of a Townscape Heritage / Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme which will take place at New Lanark over a 4 year period until 2020. Phase 1 of this large-scale regeneration project has seen the restoration of Double Row, a Category A listed former millworkers’ tenement block, which had been vacant and derelict for over 40 years. Phase 2A, which is currently under construction, is the demarcation and interpretation of Mantilla Row which had been demolished in 1988. Further phases include the repair of the Church wall and restoration of other tenements within the village. A range of heritage-based community activities are being delivered in parallel to the construction works including this event.

Total costs for this large scale regeneration project are over £4m. The two main funders are the Heritage Lottery Fund through its Townscape Heritage (TH) programme and Historic Environment Scotland through its Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS). Additional funding has been secured from the Renewable Energy Fund (South Lanarkshire Council), The Wolfson Foundation and New Lanark Trust.