Much of the focus was on Dale’s treatment of his child employees – the so-called Apprentice or Pauper children. Unbelievable as it sounds today, it was common practice for large numbers of children to be employed in mills (and elsewhere) from the age of 6 or 7 to age 15 or thereabouts. In New Lanark, village children worked alongside some 300 Apprentice or Pauper children from the charity workhouses in Glasgow and Edinburgh. They were often (but not always) orphans, looked after by the parish, which was very keen to reduce costs by sending them out to work. The children were not paid but were given board & lodging in No.4 Mill. To begin with, they worked as reelers and pickers but later they worked at a range of jobs where they could learn skills which they could use when they left the mills. Some joined the army and navy; some became joiners or smiths and some were kept on in New Lanark. Employers like Dale were seen as charitable and benevolent because they offered the chance of employment, board and lodging and the acquisition of transferable skills.