William Armstrong

The baron who made electricity from water.

Fishing on the River Dee in Dentdale one day in the 1840s, William Armstrong started mulling on the power of water. He went on to develop hydraulic cranes, accumulators, and in 1878 his home at Cragside in Northumberland became the first in the world to have hydroelectric power – initially enough to turn on a single lamp in the art gallery.

You can visit the house, now owned by the National Trust, perched on a crag above the Debdon Burn, a ‘modern magician’s’ palace that’s been likened to the fairytale German castle of Neuschwanstein. And you can walk the grounds where the baron created five lakes to power his hydro schemes which included sawmill, dumb waiter and rotisserie, and where he planted seven million trees, and explore the Rothbury Terraces in the wider estate beyond.

Armstrong was an early advocate for other forms of renewable energy such as solar, saying that ‘direct heating action of the sun’s rays’ might be used ‘in complete substitution for a steam engine.’

WALK HERE: You can walk the Rothbury Terraces for free (find a guide at walk1000miles.co.uk/bonusroutes). Fee to visit Cragside (nationaltrust.org. uk/cragside).

LIGHTING THE WAY Armstrong’s hydroelectric invention initially lit just single bulb in his Cragside home.