1. www.theeducationforum.co.uk How was Robert Owen different to other factory owners and what is his legacy?

2. Early life Owen was born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, the fourth surviving child of a saddle maker and ironmonger on May 14 th 1771 Very little is known of his early family life, and this is not surprising for he left home at the age of ten In 1781 aged 10 with his parent's goodwill and a present of forty shillings from the people of Newtown in his pocket, Owen set out for London to work in a Draper’s shop. He was a thoughtful child and began to read extensively, searching, he said, for the "true religion", with the result that he was forced to reject all religions and become an atheist: “My religious feelings were immediately replaced by the spirit of universal charity."

3. Manchester As a young adult Owen moved to Manchester to work in a factory He went to work as a manager of a cotton factory employing 500 men, women and children: "When I arrived at the mill", Owen tells us, "I found myself at once in the midst of 500 men, women and children, who were busily occupied with machinery, much of which I had never seen before." Owen was responsible for 500 workers, the factory accounts, productivity and the profitability of the business During his time in Manchester Owen married Caroline, the eldest daughter of David Dale, the owner of the New Lanark Mills. Owen eventually became the manager of these mills and devoted the next twenty years to reorganising the community of two thousand workers on strikingly original lines

4. New Lanark Owen’s experience in Manchester had convinced him that there was a better way to run a business than the brutal typical factory conditions of the time. Owen introduced the 10 hour day and banned the employment of children long before the Factory Act of 1833 Owen improved housing, opened a shop in which good quality goods were sold at relatively low prices, and started schools and day-nurseries for his workers families. Unlike the education offered by Sunday Schools Owen was not concerned to use education to inculcate beliefs or theories but sought to educate children as human beings capable of applying their reason to nature and society and of enjoying all aspects of life Initially Owen’s experiment was a success and New Lanark thrived and was profitable. Buoyed by this experience Owen became more political and Throughout the 1820's, believing that a better and more moral world could be won with the abolition of private property Owen turned to the formation of co-operative villages in Scotland, Ireland and Hampshire. He later set up such a community in America, but the project failed, with four-fifths of his entire fortune being lost in the venture

5. Trade Unions Following the failure of the co-operative villages Owen turned his attention to trade unions and set up the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union, which within a few weeks of its formation in 1834 had enrolled more than one million members. This too collapsed in 1834, following the deportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs by the Whig government, and Owen continuously fought for their return to England

6. Death Owen died 17 November 1858 significantly less wealthy than he had been as a young man.

7. Significance Believed that society caused social ills not gods or evil individuals and that a better society could produce better people – one of the first radical atheists Saw secular education as a vehicle for positive social change – believed education should be separated from religion and that all teachers should be trained educationalists Very influential on the growth of the Cooperative movement and Cooperative Values Opposed the Whig workhouse and argued for state benefits to alleviate poverty Opposed corporal and capital punishment Started the first general trade union – very important to the rise of Chartism Very influential to the Factory Act of 1833 and all future ones Seen as an early ‘socialist’ – influential on the rise of a new ideology that wanted to end all social classes