Inside the oldest library of its kind in Britain

It’s the committee which, since 1741, has managed Leadhills Miners’ Library. A picturesque conservation village, high in the Lowther Hills in South Lanarkshire today, Leadhills was, along with neighbouring Wanlockhead, an important centre for mining until the 1930s.

Leadhills Miner's Library

Two hundred years earlier, the mathematician James Stirling was employed by the landed proprietor, the Earl of Hopetoun, to rescue the affairs of his mining company.

Stirling, a child of the early Enlightenment, set about boosting productivity by improving the lives of the miners. Working hours were reduced to six per day; a health insurance scheme was begun and a doctor employed; a school opened; and miners were encouraged to build cottages with plots of land where they could farm.

Leadhill

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