the palace of the modern magician
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 08 June 2004 22:01:29
or so cragside is dubbed, the national trust property we decided to visit last saturday.
as if we hadn't done enough driving having taken the day off on friday and driven up to cumbria with the inlaws, we drove across the penines to see this impressive place.
the links above will give you the gist, but really i'm not much into who lord armstrong was or the planting & landscaping of the grounds. although he seems to have been a typically over-wealthy arms dealer of his time with some cash to splash.
and splash he did on building up this mansion perched on the edge of a hill on a huge estate, surreounded by lakes, woodland, formal gardens etc. the drive round the grounds was 6miles, and apparently there's 31miles of walks round the estate.
what really does it for me though (sad i know) is it's packed with gadgets & innovations:
in the kitchen there's a spit turned by a series of gears and shafts from a very simple hydro turbine.
the first electrically lit house, conveniently he was good friends with Joseph Swan who invented the incandescent lamp. not only that but it was all hydro powered by water from a lake in the grounds and a generator house down below.
upstairs is a dinner gong.... electrically operated to call his guests to dinner.
so you can see why i like this guy with all his toys & gadgets, very cool. needless to say i dragged everyone on the walk down to see the generators. although i will admit the rhodendendrons which are all over the grounds were very impressive and pretty.
