In advance

The founder of Britain's first infant school promoted learning for its own sake in ways that are meaningful to young children, as Professor Tricia David explains Robert Owen was born in Newtown, mid-Wales, in 1771. Newtown was then a very small market town with little industrial development other than a few flannel looms. He was the much loved youngest child of a saddler and ironmonger father, who was also the local postmaster. Owen's mother's family were numerous and 'respectable farmers' in the area.