one great thing that happens when you are travelling without a timetable is the little interesting things you stumble upon or in this case the big interesting thing, the life of Welshman, Robert Owens. When we were wandering around Newtown in Wales looking for where the locals had sent us to find the WW1 memorial we came across this lovely statue of this man with a child standing beside him but his hand resting on his head. We saw the name Robert Owens and wondered who he was. Later, after we had brought our fresh welsh cakes and apple and raspberry pie from a market baker we stumbled across a museum dedicated in his name. Briefly born in 1771, he grew up in Newtown, then left at 10 to become a drapers apprentice. He then moved to a retail business in Manchester and with his knowledge of the trade and his way with people he was managing one of Manchesters largest cotton mills at the age of 21. He was appalled at the working conditions of the very young children and petitioned government to raise the minimum age of children in the mills from 6 to 10, have them working 10 hours instead of 12 hour days and have education available to them up to the age of 16. He did not succeed with his requests but it started him on the road to reform and creating a community where the interests of workers and employers were not in conflict. If you are interested in reading more about this amazing man and the work he did in England and America here is a website...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen
http://robert-owen-museum.org.uk/
I will leave you with a quote from him from his deathbed.'My life was not useless; I gave important truths to the world, and it was only for want of understanding that they were disregarded. I have been ahead of my time'. How inspiring.....
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