The Magician’s Palace
Steve Newman is in Northumberlandd visiting the house of a 19th-century genius.
THE “Palace of the Magician”, as a Victorian journal termed it, is situated on a crag high above the village of Rothbury in Northumberland. To some it is also known as Lockwood Manor, appearing in “Jurassic World”, the fourth instalment of the Jurassic Park film series.
Today it is better known as Cragside, where the house, grounds and estate buildings are lovingly tended by the National Trust.
The magician in question was William Armstrong, the first Baron Armstrong. He was a 19th-century genius, an inventor and arms magnate from Newcastle upon Tyne.
The house had hot and cold running water, fire alarms, central heating, telephones and a Turkish bath. Most remarkable of all, it was the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity.
So popular did the house become that the Prince and Princess of Wales visited in 1884 when it was finally completed.
Water was pumped up some 200ft above the house. It then flowed down to power the devices that were so necessary to Victorian country-house life, including a spit in the kitchen and passenger lift.
As well as being a mechanical genius, Lord Armstrong was also a brilliant landscape designer, and the wonderful gardens surrounding the house sprang from his imagination.
He and his wife, also a keen and accomplished gardener, set about planting and developing the bleak moorland.
This included planting up to seven million trees and bushes to cover the bare hillside and create the 1000-acre forest garden you can explore today.
Lakes were created and azaleas and rhododendrons were planted to give the estate the magnificent colours and stunning displays that people flock to see and for which it is justly famous today.
Around and below the house is one of Europe’s largest rock gardens, formed by hundreds of large, round boulders that were manhandled into position by local workmen.
Across the valley is the terraced garden where exotic fruits for consumption in the house were nurtured throughout the year in glasshouses.
Today the estate needs constant managing to maintain its condition, and the National Trust has a small army of staff and volunteers who help.
Rhododendrons, one of the estate’s biggest draws, have beautiful flowers but are an invasive species.
People come on the trust’s volunteering holidays to repair footpaths and remove vegetation from around the lake, to keep the vista as its Victorian designers intended.
Perhaps one of the most important part of the team is Andrew Sawyer, Cragside’s Conservation Manager.
“My role is primarily a creative one,” he says, “of improving conservation and engaging supporters, to bring the property and its story to life for visitors and future generations.”
Through projects, Andrew and the team have discovered a lot about Cragside technology that is underground. The pipework that transported water around the estate, for example, is really important to the Cragside story.
“Above all, it is the people who make Cragside special: staff, volunteers, contractors
and specialists, visitors and supporters. It’s like taking a postcard from the past and putting a conservation stamp on it to send it into the future – that’s a special thing to be involved in!”
As Tree and Woodland Manager, Chris Clues covers quite a varied role, and like Andrew, he, too, can discover forgotten aspects of Cragside’s past.
“That’s so true,” he says. “Over the years we have uncovered quarries on the estate where the stone for the house came from and plenty of hidden footpaths.
“We have found old tools in the woods from years gone by and things like old-style light bulbs as well as old cabling used for the electrical system for the house.
“My time spent outside the office involves carrying out tree-surgery work, tree felling, tree planting, rhododendron removal, working with volunteer groups, woodland management and tree safety work.”
The tree-safety programme is the main area that keeps Chris busiest. The estate is split into zones, from very high visitor footfall to low visitor areas, and he’s responsible for making sure the trees are checked and safe across the estate.
This is especially important after weather events such as Storm Ali, as the forestry staff need to carry out a thorough check across the estate before they can reopen to the public.
“We are also involved in red squirrel conservation work, which has been running for the last ten years on the estate,” he says. “The work involves the use of feeding stations with hair traps. This allows us to identify whether it is red or grey squirrels that have been visiting the feeding station.
“This is backed up with the use of wildlife cameras. The last batch of cameras was purchased through public donations, for which we are so very grateful.
“I think you will always find hidden little gems on an estate like this as so much of the outer estate does not have public access and is dense woodland cover, which is fantastic for the wildlife.”
That’s great, Chris, but I’ll let you carry on. The thought a T Rex suddenly appearing out of the rhododendrons doesn’t really appeal!