MILLS are to New Lanark what shipyards are to Glasgow – the beating heart of its industrial heyday.

The cotton spinning village in the Clyde Valley is holding a Back in Time Day on July 8 to help visitors understand more about what the mills meant to its community.

The event will explain some of the changes beginning to take place at New Lanark in the Victorian era, such as the modernisation of the mills, the introduction of mill and steam engines and the advent of photography.

New Lanark was founded in 1785 and quickly became internationally renowned thanks to the enlightened management of social pioneer, Robert Owen who managed the village from 1800-1825.

He provided decent homes, fair wages, free health care, a new education system for villagers and the first workplace nursery school in the world.

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, New Lanark has been beautifully restored as a living community, which welcomes visitors from all over the world.

The Visitor Attraction includes the Annie McLeod Experience, which reveals what life was like at New Lanark in 1820, through the eyes of mill girl Annie.

The Back in Time Day is part of a £4m Townscape Heritage and Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme which is taking place over a four-period, finishing in 2020.

The first phase saw the restoration of Double Row, a Category A listed former millworkers’ tenement block, which had been vacant and derelict for more than 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, including next month’s Back in Time Day, are being delivered in parallel to the construction works.

Textile production and innovation has been the continuous thread throughout New Lanark’s history, from the village’s early years as the one-time largest cotton manufacturer in Scotland, to its dynamic present, producing more than 60 shades of high-quality woollen yarn using historic textile machinery and launching the world’s first Organic Tartan.

New Lanark has also teamed up with the makers of the Great Tapestry of Scotland, currently on show in the village’s Exhibition Gallery.

Taking 65,000 hours of stitching and using around 300 miles of wool (enough to lay the entire length of Scotland) in 161 panels, this beautiful tapestry depicts the entire history of Scotland - all 420 million years of it.

It was the brainchild of one of the world’s best-loved writers, Alexander McCall Smith.

The 44 Scotland Street author, together with historian Alistair Moffat and the artistic talents of Andrew Crummy, (not to mention more than 1000 stitchers from all over the country) formed a team to produce the world’s longest tapestry, through one of the biggest community arts projects ever seen in Scotland.

New Lanark first hosted the Great Tapestry of Scotland back in 2014, exhibiting it to13,000 visitors.

This year, it’s back and for the first time panels from it are being exhibited alongside fascinating insights from Dorie Wilkie and her team of stitchers who worked on the project across Scotland.

Its return to New Lanark was marked by the unveiling of The Midwives Scotland Tapestry panel, created by the Royal College of Midwives.to mark the centenary of the Midwives Act (Scotland) 1915.

Over the course of 2015 the panel, supported by a group of expert midwife needle-workers travelled the length and breadth of Scotland to enable midwives, maternity support workers, student midwives, professors, paediatricians, anaesthetists, obstetricians, porters and domestic staff to put a stitch in a piece of history.

The final stitch was made by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Patron of The Royal College of Midwives.

Visitors to the ‘Back in Time Day’ will be able to enjoy a wide selection of free activities including outdoor games in Robert Owen’s Garden, circus performers and period music, traditional ceilidh dancing, craft demonstrations, traction engines, period food samples and the chance to dress up and snap photos in the vintage photo studio.

It runs from 11am until 4pm on Sunday, July 8. Visit www,newlanark.org for more information.