ABSTRACT
The Orbiston community was one of the first attempts to put Robert Owen’s large-scale community plans into practice. Co-founded by two of his earliest followers, Alexander Hamilton of Dalzell and Abram Combe, Orbiston was meant to pick up where the failed Motherwell scheme had left off the same year. Combe, whose younger brother George was the pioneer of phrenology in Britain, was an Edinburgh tanner who converted to Owen’s views after a visit to New Lanark in 1820. One year later, with financial support from Hamilton, he founded the Edinburgh Practical Society, a discussion group for local Owenites, co-operative shop and general training ground for future community living. Orbiston failed to attract sufficient financial backing from wealthy investors, as Owen’s visionary schemes and anti-religious stance were facing an increasing backlash. This, in addition to Combe’s untimely death in 1827, meant that the grandiose plans of its articles of agreement were never realised.
