Cragside
Was this the World's First Smart House?

All visitors to Cragside will find something of interest. There is a tick for those who like to browse around posh Victorian houses, another for the engineering/geeky-minded who can play detective and find all the innovations, and finally a big tick for the outdoorsy people who love marching through stunning gardens and scenery. So, pack a tasty picnic and get ready for a great day out at Cragside!

Lord and Lady Armstrong

Here is a short “highlights” list of what the Armstrongs achieved

Exploring Cragside

There are so many things to see on the Cragside estate that it is very difficult to decide on the best route. I think it’s best to just wander the paths and follow the signposts to something that may interest you.

Be aware that on our last visit in March 2022, the National Trust had closed off several areas of the grounds due to the damage caused by the storms in November and December 2021. Cragside lost thousands of trees in the high winds, and many places were still not safe for visitors.

We started from the car park and went downhill to Tumbeleton Lake. Our only previous visit was many years ago on a very wet September day, so it was very pleasant to walk through the landscape in sunshine. There are lovely views across the lake, and by the dam is the new, larger Archimedes screw installed by the National Trust in 2014 which generates electrical power for Cragside. It’s nice that the National Trust have stuck to the same principle as Lord Armstrong, but just brought the technology into the 21st century!

From the dam we followed the burn through the Debdon Valley to the Iron Bridge. From the bridge, the path climbed its way through the trees to the more formal gardens. These were a bit bare at this time of year, but later in the year will be full of colour and interest.

We retraced our steps back to the bridge and crossed the burn to walk through the pinetum and rockery and on up to the house.

It was nice to see the estate at a different time of year as this time the plants were just coming to life, but during our September visit the heather was all purple and some trees were turning to autumn colours!

Cragside House Tour

Our Cragside house tour started in the bright kitchen. The kitchen was designed as a double height room to allow an extra row of windows for improved lighting and to encourage cooler temperatures. A large cooking range with roasting fire and ovens dominates the room. There are two roasting spits hanging down from a geared mechanism that is driven by a water turbine in the room below the kitchen.

The water turbine works along the lines of a garden sprinkler system, where high pressure water is fed into an arm with two nozzles to create two jets of water to turn the connecting rod. It’s called a Barker’s Mill or Scotch turbine and was invented in the late 1600’s.

Another labour-saving item in the kitchen is the dishwasher that sits above the large sink. It’s believed that the real position for the dishwasher would have been downstairs in the scullery. Again, high pressure water would have been used and sprayed from the top of the washer to clean the plates and drain away from the bottom.

In the left-hand corner of the kitchen is the “dumb waiter”. The first patent for a dumb waiter was granted to George W Canon in 1887, although the idea was used back in the Roman era. This very early model was used to transport heavy pots, pans, plates, and food from the scullery below the kitchen.

Before leaving the kitchen, make sure to go down the stairs and visit the scullery area. In one of the rooms, you’ll see the spit turbine and hydraulic lift mechanisms.

Leaving the kitchen, our tour took us past the hydraulic lift. Created in Armstrong’s own Elswick Works in Newcastle, the lift was another useful addition to the house as it made life much easier for the servants to get up and down between floors with heavy items like scuttles of coal, bundles of washing, and warming pans. The Armstrong’s really wanted everyone to have an easier job and be more efficient!

The next main room we visited was the dining room, with its dark wooden ceiling and lovely large stone inglenook fireplace. I thought the dark ceiling made the room a bit oppressive, but I loved the fireplace. Apparently, the gothic sandstone arch was modelled on the kitchen in Fountains Abbey. It must have been very cosy sitting in the inglenook on a cold winter evening reading a good book! 

I also loved the four stained-glass windows at the back of the inglenook. Designed by William Morris, they're a beautiful touch!

Before leaving the dining room, take a closer look at the circular dining table. It so reminded me of the Union Jack flag. I’m not sure if that was its intention, but it did make a lovely piece of furniture.

The next room is the library and like the dining room it had a carved wooden ceiling. Light did flood in through the two large windows, but it still felt rather too dark to sit and read, and this lovely room just didn’t have enough shelving for books. I got the feeling this was more of a relaxed family room rather than a library. I would have taken my book from the library and sat in the inglenook in the dining room!

On display in the library are four of the original cloisonné vases the Armstrongs had converted to electrical lamps. In 1880 these lamps used Armstrong’s friend, Joseph Swan’s, newly invented incandescent light bulbs. An incandescent light bulb is what most of us have grown up with, where a metal wire is heated up inside a sealed, airless glass bulb. When these lamps were first installed, they each stood in a bowl of poisonous mercury to complete the electrical circuit. As the electrical switch had not yet been invented, the servants controlled the lighting by lifting the vases in and out of the mercury to turn them on and off. To avoid getting electrical shocks, they had to wear thick insulating gloves!

These lamps were not the first to be used at Cragside. Arc lamps were first installed two or three years earlier. These were not as efficient or reliable as the new incandescent bulbs. And remember, it was the power of water that lit the lamps!

The Japanese Room contains gifts and presents from the Armstrong’s Japanese friends, which included the Royal Family. The lamp on the writing bureau was once powered by whale blubber.

I could just imagine Lord Armstrong closing the study door, sitting at the desk by the window and thinking. I wonder what inventions or innovations were created in the peace and quiet of this room. As he was a strong advocate of the telephone and had seven lines from Cragside to the Elswick works, perhaps some big business decisions or discussions also occurred in this beautiful study.

The Yellow and White bedrooms were part of the original 1863 house, and so were not as grand as the other bedrooms added in later phases. They are staged as children’s bedrooms.

The red bedroom is a grander affair. This is part of the first phase of expansion of the original house of 1870-72 and includes the dining room and library below.

Strangely enough, the red bedroom wasn’t the one used by the first Lord and Lady Armstrong. Their bedroom suite was opposite the yellow and white bedrooms in the original part of the house and is not open to the public.

Next to the red bedroom is the beautiful morning room with its decorated ceiling and wide bay window overlooking the rock garden and pinetum.

The Bamboo Room was a guest room and gets its name from the fake bamboo bedroom furniture. Apparently, after Lady Armstrong’s death in 1893, Lord Armstrong preferred to sleep in this room.

The dressing room attached to the Bamboo Room is now used to display military memorabilia from the regiments the later Lord Armstrongs served.

The second phase of extension occurred between 1872 and 1877. During this period the entrance hall, Owl Suite, gallery, and Gilnockie Tower were built.

The gallery is a wonderful, arched room that crosses between the main house and Gilnockie Tower. The wood panelled roof is full of glass windows that make this a lovely place to view paintings and collections. Just off the main gallery is a smaller gallery displaying water colour paintings.

A third phase of extension included the refurbishment of the Owl Suite and the construction of the drawing room. This was completed just in time for the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales and their five children on the 19th of August 1884. It was extremely rare that the Royal family would stay at the house of a commoner, but the draw of all the magical innovations around Cragside had to be experienced, even by a future King of England!

The Owl Suite gets its name from the owls carved into the American walnut bed frames. All the rooms in the suite were given hot and cold running water, central heating, electric lighting, and servant call buttons. The rooms included fitted wardrobes, which at the time was a new fashion innovation.

The drawing room is reached by passing along the gallery. This 60-feet long and 25-feet wide room is a showstopper. The curved ceiling is full of windows allowing light to stream into the room. At one end is a two-storey marble inglenook fireplace. The giant fireplace was so heavy that designer Norman Shaw had to build it into the rocks of the hillside to support its weight. This room is certainly fit for a King!

The last major additions were made in 1895 by new architect Frederick Waller. The new extension included a billiard room and electrical room. Lord Armstrong used the electrical room as his laboratory in the last years of his life.

There is so much to see and do around Cragside house and estate that it will be a real day out. Even now, after our second visit, I’m still finding out about things that I didn’t spot during our tour.

One thing I didn’t see was the electrical dinner gong. I’m not sure if this would be fully automatic like an alarm clock or whether you pushed a button and it gonged for dinner. If it was the latter, then it seems a bit extravagant, and I couldn’t really see it being a time or labour-saving device!

It looks like another visit is required…

Are You Planning to Visit Northumberland?

Where You Could Stay

There's a reason Northumberland is one of my favourite English counties. Its landscape is utterly gorgeous with long beaches and empty sweeps of hills that just beg to be walked. In between you can find small towns and pretty villages, conntected by lanes that are great on the bike as long as you have the legs for climbing. And there are holiday cottages to suit all tastes and budgets.

To see other holiday cottages in Northumberland click here. Or check out holiday cottages in other parts of England by clicking here.

Or, if you fancy staying in a hotel here are some nice examples...

Please click here if you would like to review more Northumberland hotels or you could use the Booking.com search box below.

What You Could See and Do

Even if you stayed a month, you'd find that you don't have enough time to explore the county top to bottom and see everything it has to offer. There's plenty of history from Hadrian's Wall near Hexham to Lindisfarne in the north with reams of castles and ruins in between. There are beaches and seaside towns like Craster, Alnmouth and Seahouses - and some of the best fish & chips in all of England. There are market towns like Haltwhistle, Rothbury, Bellingham, Berwick, Warkworth and Harbottle to explore. And there are hillsides to climb and the great outdoors to enjoy.

Are you feeling in need of a holiday yet? Here are a few more pages that might give you ideas...

• Berwick-upon-Tweed
• Alnwick Castle
  
• The Holy Island of Lindisfarne
• Warkworth Castle
• Dunstanburgh Castle
• Cycling in Northumberland - my favourite tandem tour EVER!
• Visit the beach at Alnmouth.
• Stroll around Alnwick town.
  

And if you want to explore more of Northumberland and its martial history, check out this Northumberland Castle Tour.

For more holiday ideas return to the Northumberland page.

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