158-616: Cragside is a Victorian Tudor Revival country house near the town of Rothbury in Northumberland , England. It was the home of William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong , founder of the Armstrong Whitworth armaments firm. An industrial magnate , scientist, philanthropist and inventor of the hydraulic crane and the Armstrong gun , Armstrong also displayed his inventiveness in the domestic sphere, making Cragside
316-614: A debut children's book called The World of Lightness: A Story of the Duergar of Simonside ; an annual 10-mile winter nighttime trail run in the Simonside Hills is called the Duergar Nightcrawler ; and a Rothbury art gallery is named Red Deaugar Art Gallery, run by local artist Margaret Bodley Edwards, a descendant of Gothic Revival architect George Frederick Bodley (1827–1907), and of diplomat and founder of
474-549: A feminist movement developed. Parental authority was seen as important, but children were given legal protections against abuse and neglect for the first time towards the end of the period. Access to education increased rapidly during the 19th century. State-funded schools were established in England and Wales for the first time. Education became compulsory for pre-teenaged children in England, Scotland and Wales. Literacy rates increased rapidly, and had become nearly universal by
632-555: A "Wild West Drama", on the night of 28 February 1919, an attempted armed robbery took place at the Rothbury Brewery. Two Russian sailors, Peter Klighe and Karl Strautin, broke into the Rothbury Brewery to rob it, however, at around 9:00 pm, patrol officer PC Francis Sinton was walking past the Brewery, and he approached it after hearing noises of breaking glass. As he did so he told a passer-by named James Curry to fetch
790-540: A country house and "shooting box" ( hunting lodge ) just outside Rothbury, and extended it as a "fairy palace" between 1869 and 1900. The house and its estate are now owned by the National Trust and are open to the public, attracting many visitors to the area. The area around Rothbury was populated during the prehistoric period , as evidenced by finds dating from the Mesolithic period and later, although all
948-604: A democracy. The political legacy of the reform movement was to link the nonconformists (part of the evangelical movement) in England and Wales with the Liberal Party . This continued until the First World War . The Presbyterians played a similar role as a religious voice for reform in Scotland. Religion was politically controversial during this era, with Nonconformists pushing for the disestablishment of
1106-455: A fashion among employers for providing welfare services to their workers, led to relative social stability. The Chartist movement for working-class men to be given the right to vote, which had been prominent in the early Victorian period, dissipated. Government involvement in the economy was limited. Only in the post-World War II period , around a century later, did the country experience substantial economic growth again. But whilst industry
1264-462: A garden, a bakehouse and a watermill, all of which were leased to tenants. When the line of Fitz Roger died out, the town reverted to being a crown possession, but in 1334 Edward III gave it to Henry de Percy , who had been given the castle and baronry of Warkworth six years earlier. Despite the Scottish border wars, Rothbury rose in prosperity during the 14th century, and had become the town with
1422-399: A glove hanging in the church and asked the sexton about it. He was told it was a challenge to anyone who removed it. Gilpin thus took the glove and put it in his pocket and carried on with his sermon, and no-one challenged him. A painting of this incident by artist William Bell Scott is housed at Wallington Hall . Near the town's All Saints' Parish Church stands the doorway and site of
1580-461: A holiday for over fifteen years. On a walk with friends, Armstrong was struck by the attractiveness of the site for a house. Returning to Newcastle, he bought a small parcel of land and decided to build a modest house on the side of a moorland crag. He intended a house of eight or ten rooms and a stable for a pair of horses. The house was completed in the mid-1860s by an unknown architect: a two-storey shooting box of little architectural distinction, it
1738-412: A hydroelectric rotisserie . In 1887, Armstrong was raised to the peerage , the first engineer or scientist to be ennobled, and became Baron Armstrong of Cragside. The original building consisted of a small shooting lodge which Armstrong built between 1862 and 1864. In 1869, he employed the architect Richard Norman Shaw to enlarge the site, and in two phases of work between 1869 and 1882, they transformed
SECTION 10
#17327811032481896-445: A major employer and industry in their own right. Expected standards of personal conduct changed in around the first half of the 19th century, with good manners and self-restraint becoming much more common. Historians have suggested various contributing factors, such as Britain's major conflicts with France during the early 19th century, meaning that the distracting temptations of sinful behaviour had to be avoided in order to focus on
2054-651: A number of safes across the region. They were charged with four counts of burglary and attempted murder, being sentenced to penal servitude for 13 years before being deported . PC Sinton was awarded the Kings Police Medal for Gallantry . Overnight on 23 and 24 August 1993, Rothbury experienced another armed robbery. An organised crime gang robbed the Rothbury post office of £15,000 (about £30,000 in 2020 money) in cash, stamps and pension books. Armed with iron crowbars and dressed in camouflage and ski masks,
2212-451: A period between the 1860s and 1880s subject to spot compulsory examinations for sexually transmitted infections , and detainment if they were found to be infected. This caused a great deal of resentment among women in general due to the principle underlying the checks, that women had to be controlled in order to be safe for sexual use by men, and the checks were opposed by some of the earliest feminist campaigning. Rothbury Rothbury
2370-423: A protective barrier to (Armstrong's) home". Armstrong continued to buy land after the purchase of the original site and by the 1880s the gardens and grounds comprised some 1,700 acres (690 ha), with the wider estate, including Armstrong's agricultural holdings, extending to 15,000 acres (6,100 ha) according to Henrietta Heald's 2012 biography of Armstrong, and to over 16,000 acres (6,500 ha) according to
2528-430: A rise in prosecutions for illegal sodomy in the middle of the 19th century. Male sexuality became a favourite subject of medical researchers' study. For the first time, all male homosexual acts were outlawed. Concern about sexual exploitation of adolescent girls increased during the period, especially following the white slavery scandal , which contributed to the increasing of the age of consent from 13 to 16 . At
2686-546: A role in economic life but exploitation of their labour became especially intense during the Victorian era. Children were put to work in a wide range of occupations, but particularly associated with this period are factories. Employing children had advantages, as they were cheap, had limited ability to resist harsh working conditions, and could enter spaces too small for adults. Some accounts exist of happy upbringings involving child labour, but conditions were generally poor. Pay
2844-573: A substantial part of the metropolis... In big, once handsome houses, thirty or more people of all ages may inhabit a single room Hunger and poor diet was a common aspect of life across the UK in the Victorian period, especially in the 1840s, but the mass starvation seen in the Great Famine in Ireland was unique. Levels of poverty fell significantly during the 19th century from as much as two thirds of
3002-517: A suitable place for visitors to his house at Cragside to be accommodated. The town is now served by an Arriva North East bus service X14 which runs via Longframlington , Longhorsley , Morpeth and continues to Newcastle upon Tyne , the nearest city. This runs every two hours during the day, hourly at peak morning and evening periods. Rothbury has two schools: Rothbury is in the catchment area for The King Edward VI School, Morpeth , also run by The Three Rivers Learning Trust. Rothbury holds
3160-475: A symbol of the British Empire. Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901. The Victorian era saw a rapidly growing middle class who became an important cultural influence, to a significant extent replacing the aristocracy as British society's dominant class. A distinctive middle-class lifestyle developed that influenced what society valued as a whole. Increased importance was placed on the value of
3318-687: A time when job options for women were limited and generally low-paying, some women, particularly those without familial support, took to prostitution to support themselves. Attitudes in public life and among the general population to prostitution varied. Evidence about prostitutes' situation also varies. One contemporary study argues that the trade was a short-term stepping stone to a different lifestyle for many women, while another, more recent study argues they were subject to physical abuse, financial exploitation, state persecution, and difficult working conditions. Due to worries about venereal disease , especially among soldiers, women suspected of prostitution were for
SECTION 20
#17327811032483476-618: A turbulent and bloody history. In the 15th and 16th centuries the Coquet valley was a pillaging ground for bands of Reivers who attacked and burned the town with terrifying frequency. Hill farming has been a mainstay of the local economy for many generations. Names such as Armstrong, Charleton and Robson remain well represented in the farming community. Their forebears, members of the reiver 'clans', were in constant conflict with their Scots counterpart. The many fortified farms, known as bastle houses , are reminders of troubled times which lasted until
3634-461: A wide range of new inventions. This led Great Britain to become the foremost industrial and trading nation of the time. Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era (1850–1870) as Britain's 'Golden Years', with national income per person increasing by half. This prosperity was driven by increased industrialisation, especially in textiles and machinery, along with exports to the empire and elsewhere. The positive economic conditions, as well as
3792-569: A wide-ranging change to the electoral system of England and Wales . Definitions that purport a distinct sensibility or politics to the era have also created scepticism about the worth of the label 'Victorian', though there have also been defences of it. Michael Sadleir was insistent that "in truth, the Victorian period is three periods, and not one". He distinguished early Victorianism—the socially and politically unsettled period from 1837 to 1850 —and late Victorianism (from 1880 onwards), with its new waves of aestheticism and imperialism , from
3950-598: Is 13.5 miles (21.7 km) northwest of Morpeth and 26 miles (42 km) of Newcastle upon Tyne . It is located on the edge of the Northumberland National Park . Rothbury has two Zone 6 B roads going through it: West to East is the B6341, Rothbury's main street, Front Street, is part of this B road; The second B road is the B6342, its starting point is in Rothbury, and is connected to the B6341, it
4108-464: Is a Grade II* listed structure and was restored by the Trust, and reopened to the public in 2008–2009. The gardens themselves are listed Grade I, and some of the architectural and technological structures have their own historic listings. The Clock Tower, which regulated life on the estate, dates from the time of the construction of the shooting lodge, and might have been designed by the same architect; it
4266-599: Is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the River Coquet . It is 14 miles (22.5 km) north-west of Morpeth and 26 miles (42 km) north of Newcastle upon Tyne . At the 2011 census , it had a population of 2,107. Rothbury emerged as an important town because of its location at a crossroads over a ford on the River Coquet . Turnpike roads leading to Newcastle, Alnwick , Hexham and Morpeth allowed for an influx of families and
4424-477: Is also a well preserved iron age Fort with 3 circular mounds around it on the footpath to Thropton. Also, there is a 4000 year old burial cairn a few hundred metres away. The town was the terminus of a branch line from Scotsgap railway station on the North British Railway line from Morpeth to Reedsmouth . The line opened on 1 November 1870, the last passenger trains ran on 15 September 1952 and
4582-523: Is evidenced in a watercolour painted to commemorate the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The Prince and Armstrong are shown smoking cigars on the terrace, as Victorian convention did not permit smoking in the principal reception rooms. After his first visit in 1869, Shaw described the house in a letter to his wife, noting the "wonderful hydraulic machines that do all sorts of things you can imagine". By building dams, Armstrong created five new lakes on
4740-558: Is held by the National Museum Cardiff . Cragside was an important setting for Armstrong's commercial activities. The architectural writer Simon Jenkins records: "Japanese, Persian, Siamese and German dignitaries paid court to the man who equipped their armies and built their navies". In his 2005 book Landmarks of Britain , Clive Aslet notes visits with the same purpose from the Crown Prince of Afghanistan and
4898-481: Is little better than a straggle". The half-timbering above the entrance has also been criticised as unfaithful to the vernacular tradition of the North-East. Shaw would have been unconcerned; desiring it for "romantic effect, he reached out for it like an artist reaching out for a tube of colour". The architectural historian J. Mordaunt Crook considers Cragside to be one of the very few country houses built by
Cragside - Misplaced Pages Continue
5056-555: Is named after Cragend Hill above the house, and is surrounded by an extensive rock garden , with a collection of rhododendrons , one of which is named after Lady Armstrong, who made a considerable contribution to the design and construction of the gardens, and large plantings of mostly coniferous trees. Among these is the tallest Scots pine in Britain, at a height of 131 feet (40 m). Over one hundred years after their planting, Jill Franklin wrote that, "the great, dark trees form
5214-609: Is not by Shaw. It is possible that Armstrong himself designed the clock. Like the bridge, the Clock Tower has a Grade II* listing. The formal gardens, where Armstrong's great greenhouses stood and which were long separated from the main estate, have now been acquired by the Trust. Cragside has featured in an Open University Arts Foundation Course, Jonathan Meades 's documentary series Abroad Again in Britain , BBC One 's Britain's Hidden Heritage , Glorious Gardens from above , Great Coastal Railway Journeys , Hidden Treasures of
5372-456: Is now called classical music was somewhat undeveloped compared to parts of Europe but did have significant support. Photography became an increasingly accessible and popular part of everyday life. Many sports were introduced or popularised during the Victorian era. They became important to male identity. Examples included cricket , football , rugby , tennis and cycling . The idea of women participating in sport did not fit well with
5530-609: Is panelled in American Black walnut , the same wood from which the tester bed is carved. Saint notes that Shaw was "proud of the design", displaying a further "owl-bed" in an exhibition in 1877. The Prince and Princess of Wales occupied the rooms during their stay at Cragside in 1884. Other bedrooms, notably the Yellow and White rooms, were hung with wallpaper by William Morris, including early versions of his Fruit and Bird and Trellis designs. The wallpapers were reprinted using
5688-626: Is part of Rothbury's Bridge Street before going over the River Coquet on the Rothbury Bridge and going South for 23.4 miles (37.7 km) connecting to the A68 (Dere Street) at the hamlet of Colwell . Rothbury also has the B6344 on the eastern edge, it is connected to the B6341 and goes southeast for 5.6 miles (9.0 km) passing through the hamlet of Pauperhaugh and connecting to
5846-545: The A697 at the hamlet of Weldon Bridge. Note: An ethnic group that is not on the table means that no one from that ethnic group was recorded being present in Rothbury at the time of the census. Note: A religion that is not on the table means that no practitioner of that religion was recorded being present in Rothbury at the time of the census. Rothbury's Anglican parish church building – All Saints' Church – dates from circa 1850, largely replacing but in parts incorporating
6004-579: The Bodleian Library in Oxford , Sir Thomas Bodley (1545–1613). The Bedlington Terrier was originally named after Rothbury and known as the Rothbury or Rodbury Terrier however the name changed due to popularity of the breed with miners in the Northumberland pit village of Bedlington . The following are notable crimes committed in or connected to Rothbury. Dubbed by a newspaper as
6162-530: The Church of England . Nonconformists comprised about half of church attendees in England in 1851, and gradually the legal discrimination that had been established against them outside of Scotland was removed. Legal restrictions on Roman Catholics were also largely removed . The number of Catholics grew in Great Britain due to conversions and immigration from Ireland . Secularism and doubts about
6320-755: The Georgian era and preceded the Edwardian era , and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe. Various liberalising political reforms took place in the UK, including expanding the electoral franchise. The Great Famine caused mass death in Ireland early in the period. The British Empire had relatively peaceful relations with the other great powers . It participated in various military conflicts mainly against minor powers. The British Empire expanded during this period and
6478-603: The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria , Armstrong was ennobled as Baron Armstrong of Cragside, and became the first engineer and the first scientist to be granted a peerage. Among many other celebrations, he was awarded the freedom of the City of Newcastle. In his vote of thanks, the mayor noted that one in four of the entire population of the city was employed directly by Armstrong, or by companies over which he presided. Armstrong died at Cragside on 27 December 1900, aged 90, and
Cragside - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-685: The King of the United Kingdom . Charles visited his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall , now Queen Consort . Charles visited to reopen the refurbished Rothbury village hall , Jubilee Hall, originally built in 1897 and named after the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria , his 3rd Great Grandmother . The royal couple also visited Rothbury Family Butchers, whose owner, Morris Adamson, said: "I talked to them for about 20 minutes about
6794-768: The Labour Party who has been the local MP since 2024. From 1973 until 2015, Rothbury's MP was Alan Beith , a member of the Liberal Democrats since 1988 and the Liberal Party prior to its merger with the Social Democratic Party ; he is currently a member of the House of Lords . The constituency was represented by Anne-Marie Trevelyan of the Conservative Party (UK) from 2015 to 2024. Prior to Britain's withdrawal from
6952-570: The Pax Britannica , was a time of relatively peaceful relations between the world's great powers . This is particularly true of Britain's interactions with the others. The only war in which the British Empire fought against another major power was the Crimean War , from 1853 to 1856. There were various revolts and violent conflicts within the British Empire, and Britain participated in wars against minor powers. It also took part in
7110-464: The Shah of Persia , the King of Siam and two future Prime Ministers of Japan , were also customers for his commercial undertakings. Following Armstrong's death in 1900, his heirs struggled to maintain the house and estate. In 1910, the best of Armstrong's art collection was sold off, and by the 1970s, in an attempt to meet inheritance tax , plans were submitted for large-scale residential development of
7268-744: The Shah of Persia . The Shah Naser al-Din visited in July 1889, and the Afghan prince Nasrullah Khan in June 1895. Armstrong's biographer Henrietta Heald mentions two future Prime Ministers of Japan, Katō Takaaki and Saitō Makoto , among a steady stream of Japanese industrialists, naval officers, politicians and royalty who inscribed their names in the Cragside visitors' book. The Chinese diplomat Li Hung Chang visited in August 1896. King Chulalongkorn of Siam
7426-546: The University of Newcastle Museum. The first documentary mention of Rothbury, according to a local history, was in around the year 1100, as Routhebiria , or "Routha's town" ("Hrotha", according to Beckensall). The village was retained as a Crown possession after the conquest, but in 1201 King John signed the Rothbury Town Charter and visited Rothbury four years later, when the rights and privileges of
7584-405: The "spectacular" overall design. The room contains a colossal marble inglenook chimneypiece , reputed to weigh ten tons, and designed by Shaw's assistant, W. R. Lethaby . Muthesius describes the fireplace as a "splendid example ... with finely composed relief decoration". Jenkins considers it "surely the world's biggest inglenook" and describes the overall impact of the room as "sensational", noting
7742-587: The 'workshop of the world', Britain was uniquely advanced in technology in the mid-19th century. Engineering, having developed into a profession in the 18th century, gained new profile and prestige in this period. The Victorian era saw methods of communication and transportation develop significantly. In 1837, William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone invented the first telegraph system . This system, which used electrical currents to transmit coded messages, quickly spread across Britain, appearing in every town and post office. A worldwide network developed towards
7900-579: The 17th-century Three Half Moons Inn, where the Jacobite rebel James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater stayed with his followers in 1715 prior to marching into a heavy defeat at the Battle of Preston in 1715. On 16 June 1782, Methodist theologian John Wesley preached in Rothbury. Although Rothbury is of ancient origin, it mainly developed during the Victorian era . A factor in this development
8058-587: The 1880s, sanitation was inadequate in areas such as water supply and disposal of sewage. This all had a negative effect on health, especially that of the impoverished young. For instance, of the babies born in Liverpool in 1851, only 45 per cent survived to age 20. It had been hoped that there would be a rapid improvement following the Public Baths and Wash-houses Act 1846. This was the first legislation to empower local authorities in England and Wales to fund
SECTION 50
#17327811032488216-413: The 19th century and germ theory was developed for the first time. Doctors became more specialised and the number of hospitals grew. The overall number of deaths fell by about 20%. The life expectancy of women increased from around 42 to 55 and 40 to 56 for men. In spite of this, the mortality rate fell only marginally, from 20.8 per thousand in 1850 to 18.2 by the end of the century. Urbanisation aided
8374-550: The 19th century for the first time in history, improved nutrition, and a lower overall mortality rate. Ireland's population shrank significantly, mostly due to emigration and the Great Famine. The professionalisation of scientific study began in parts of Europe following the French Revolution but was slow to reach Britain. William Whewell coined the term 'scientist' in 1833 to refer to those who studied what
8532-454: The Bible. A variety of reading materials grew in popularity during the period, including novels, women's magazines, children's literature, and newspapers. Much literature, including chapbooks , was distributed on the street. Music was also very popular, with genres such as folk music , broadsides , music halls , brass bands , theater music and choral music having mass appeal. What
8690-490: The British Empire, reform included rapid expansion, the complete abolition of slavery in the African possessions and the end of transportation of convicts to Australia . Restrictions on colonial trade were loosened and responsible (i.e. semi-autonomous) government was introduced in some territories. Throughout most of the 19th century Britain was the most powerful country in the world. The period from 1815 to 1914 , known as
8848-548: The Dovecote Room, Jubilee Institute. Rothbury is served by the Northumberland County Council and represented by Councillor Steven Bridgett, first elected in 2008 as a Liberal Democrat and re-elected in 2013, 2017 and 2021 as an Independent. Rothbury is in the parliamentary constituency of North Northumberland (UK Parliament constituency). The current representative is David Smith of
9006-605: The European Union , Rothbury was in the European Parliament constituency of North East England , represented predominantly by the Labour party. Rothbury is served by Northumbria Police and has a single police station, housed, since May 2019, in a building owned by the Northumberland National Park . Rothbury has a fire station . The fire station is staffed by on-call firefighters : they do not work at
9164-723: The National Trust and ITV's series Inside the National Trust . The 2017 film The Current War was partly filmed at the estate. Cragside featured as the basis for the representation of Lockwood Manor in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom . Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire , the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria , from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed
9322-409: The National Trust, noted the historic importance of this "virtually untouched interior", with its collections of furnishings, furniture (much designed especially for Cragside), and fine and decorative arts, with work by many notable designers of the period, including William Morris , Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Philip Webb and Edward Burne-Jones . Pevsner notes that the art collection demonstrated "what
9480-553: The Origin of Species (1859), which sought to explain biological evolution by natural selection, gained a high profile in the public consciousness. Simplified (and at times inaccurate) popular science was increasingly distributed through a variety of publications which caused tension with the professionals. There were significant advances in various fields of research, including statistics , elasticity , refrigeration , natural history , electromagnetism , and logic . Known as
9638-733: The Rothbury Highland Pipe Band. The band was established on 1 June 1920, then being named the Rothbury Kilted Pipe Band. The tartan chosen for their kilts was taken from the army regiment the Seaforth Highlanders , as during World War One some of their soldiers were stationed in Coquetdale and developed friendships with the local people. They reformed in the 1950s, being renamed the Rothbury Highland Pipe Band. The band has appeared on
SECTION 60
#17327811032489796-837: The TV show The White Heather Club . Rothbury has its own football club: Rothbury FC; the club is in Division One of the Northern Football Alliance , which is on level 11 of the National League System . In Rothbury folklore Simonside Hills overlooking Rothbury has a mythical creature called a deaugar or duergar ( Norse for ' dwarf ' ). It is said that the creature lures people at night by its lantern light towards bogs or cliffs to kill them. The deaugar has entered into Rothbury's popular culture: in 2021 local musician and poet James Tait wrote
9954-464: The Victorian commercial plutocracy that was truly " avant-garde or trend-setting". In his study, The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches , Crook contends that many new-monied owners were too domineering, and generally chose second-rate architects, as these tended to be more "pliant", allowing the clients to get their own way, rather than those of the first rank such as Shaw. The Rhenish flavour of
10112-408: The Victorian era covers the duration of Victoria's reign as Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , from her accession on 20 June 1837—after the death of her uncle, William IV —until her death on 22 January 1901, after which she was succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VII . Her reign lasted 63 years and seven months, a longer period than any of her predecessors. The term 'Victorian'
10270-420: The Victorian heyday: mid-Victorianism, 1851 to 1879. He saw the latter period as characterised by a distinctive mixture of prosperity, domestic prudery , and complacency —what G. M. Trevelyan called the 'mid-Victorian decades of quiet politics and roaring prosperity'. The Reform Act , which made various changes to the electoral system including expanding the franchise, had been passed in 1832. The franchise
10428-576: The Victorian view of femininity, but their involvement did increase as the period progressed. For the middle classes, many leisure activities such as table games could be done in the home while domestic holidays to rural locations such as the Lake District and Scottish Highlands were increasingly practical. The working classes had their own culture separate from that of their richer counterparts, various cheaper forms of entertainment and recreational activities provided by philanthropy . Trips to resorts such as Blackpool were increasingly popular towards
10586-421: The Victorian wealthy craved. Salvin and Street had taught him to understand the Gothic Revival . At only 24, he won the RIBA Gold Medal and Travelling Studentship. The connection between Armstrong and Shaw was made when Armstrong purchased a picture, Prince Hal taking the crown from his father's bedside by John Callcott Horsley , which proved too large to fit into his town house in Jesmond , Newcastle. Horsley
10744-400: The West." The rapid growth in the urban population included the new industrial and manufacturing cities, as well as service centres such as Edinburgh and London. Private renting from housing landlords was the dominant tenure. P. Kemp says this was usually of advantage to tenants. Overcrowding was a major problem with seven or eight people frequently sleeping in a single room. Until at least
10902-442: The accuracy of the Old Testament grew among people with higher levels of education. Northern English and Scottish academics tended to be more religiously conservative, whilst agnosticism and even atheism (though its promotion was illegal) gained appeal among academics in the south. Historians refer to a 'Victorian Crisis of Faith', a period when religious views had to readjust to accommodate new scientific knowledge and criticism of
11060-454: The annual Rothbury Traditional music festival . It consists music concerts as well as competitions within the genre of folk music , mainly being that of traditional Northumberland folk music ,. In 2013, the festival was featured on Northumberland born TV Presenter and actor Robson Green 's documentary series Tales from Northumberland with Robson Green (Season one, Episode five). In 2019, TV presenter and singer Alexander Armstrong , who
11218-522: The arrival of the railway. Rothbury Station opened in 1870, bringing tourists on walking holidays to the surrounding hill country. This railway was most notably used by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and Princess Alexandra and their children (Albert Victor, 10 , George later George V , 9 , Louise, 7 , Victoria, 6 , Maud, 4) , They arrived in Rothbury on 19 August 1884 and left on 22 August to visit Cragside and Lord Armstrong. Firework displays were held by Pain's of London. David Dippie Dixon
11376-552: The assailant's muffler scarf, with the assailant escaping with his accomplice. After an extensive police search around Northumberland, the two perpetrators Klighe and Strautin were found in Walbottle Dene. Despite being armed with a pistol they gave themselves up. Klighe and Strautin were found wearing clothes stolen from the Ashington Co-Op , where they also broke into the safe. They were suspected of breaking into
11534-411: The basis for welfare provision into the 20th century. While many people were prone to vices, not least alcoholism, historian Bernard A. Cook argues that the main reason for 19th century poverty was that typical wages for much of the population were simply too low. Barely enough to provide a subsistence living in good times, let alone save up for bad. Improvements were made over time to housing along with
11692-426: The bridge and the glen. The room is half-panelled in oak and the fireplace includes fragments of Egyptian onyx , collected during Armstrong's visit to the country in 1872. The library originally contained some of Armstrong's best pictures, although most were rehung in the gallery or drawing room, following Shaw's later building campaign of the 1880s, and then sold in 1910, ten years after Armstrong's death. The highlight
11850-466: The building of public baths and wash houses but, since the act was only permissive rather than mandatory, improvement was slow. Conditions were particularly bad in London, where the population rose sharply and poorly maintained, overcrowded dwellings became slum housing. Kellow Chesney wrote of the situation: Hideous slums, some of them acres wide, some no more than crannies of obscure misery, make up
12008-425: The business. It was almost surreal, staggering. They were both very well informed about the trade, and the Duchess really impressed me with her knowledge and enthusiasm. I put together for them a gift of Northumbrian lamb and specialist sausages and two days later they sent me a thank you letter from Clarence House saying how much they had enjoyed the visit and the meat. The Duchess told me in the shop that her son (Tom)
12166-463: The centre of Armstrong's world; reminiscing years later, in his old age, he remarked, "had there been no Cragside, I shouldn't be talking to you today – for it has been my very life". The architectural historian Andrew Saint records that Shaw sketched out the whole design for the "future fairy palace" in a single afternoon, while Armstrong and his guests were out on a shooting party. After this rapid initial design, Shaw worked on building
12324-489: The children in school; in 1840 only about 20 per cent of the children in London had any schooling. By the 1850s, around half of the children in England and Wales were in school (not including Sunday school ). From the 1833 Factory Act onwards, attempts were made to get child labourers into part time education, though this was often difficult to achieve. Only in the 1870s and 1880s did children begin to be compelled into school. Work continued to inhibit children's schooling into
12482-409: The church, the current version of which was erected in 1902 and is known as "St Armstrong's Cross" as it was paid for by Lady Armstrong, widow of Lord Armstrong of Cragside . Until 1965, Rothbury was the location of a racecourse , which had operated intermittently since April 1759, but seldom staged more than one meeting per year. The course was affected by flooding in the 1960s, and the last meeting
12640-742: The diplomatic struggles of the Great Game and the Scramble for Africa . In 1840, Queen Victoria married her German cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . The couple had nine children, who themselves married into various royal families, and the queen thus became known as the 'grandmother of Europe'. In 1861, Albert died. Victoria went into mourning and withdrew from public life for ten years. In 1871, with republican sentiments growing in Britain, she began to return to public life. In her later years, her popularity soared as she became
12798-550: The drawing room, but Shaw also converted the museum into a top-lit picture gallery. Pride of place was given to John Everett Millais 's Chill October , bought by Armstrong at the Samuel Mendel sale at Christie's in 1875. Armstrong also bought Millais' Jephthah's Daughter at the Mendel sale. Both were sold in the 1910 sale; Chill October is now in the private collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber , and Jephthah's Daughter
12956-474: The early 20th century. 19th-century Britain saw a huge population increase accompanied by rapid urbanisation stimulated by the Industrial Revolution. In the 1901 census , more than three out of every four people were classified as living in an urban area, compared to one in five a century earlier. Historian Richard A. Soloway wrote that "Great Britain had become the most urbanized country in
13114-424: The end of period. Initially the industrial revolution increased working hours, but over the course of the 19th century a variety of political and economic changes caused them to fall back down to and in some cases below pre-industrial levels, creating more time for leisure. Before the Industrial Revolution, daily life had changed little for hundreds of years. The 19th century saw rapid technological development with
13272-453: The end of the century. Private education for wealthier children, boys and more gradually girls, became more formalised over the course of the century. The growing middle class and strong evangelical movement placed great emphasis on a respectable and moral code of behaviour. This included features such as charity, personal responsibility, controlled habits, child discipline and self-criticism. As well as personal improvement, importance
13430-470: The end of the century. In 1876, an American patented the telephone . A little over a decade later, 26,000 telephones were in service in Britain. Multiple switchboards were installed in every major town and city. Guglielmo Marconi developed early radio broadcasting at the end of the period. The railways were important economically in the Victorian era, allowing goods, raw materials, and people to be moved around, stimulating trade and industry. They were also
13588-541: The enlargement of the settlement during the Middle Ages . In 1291, Rothbury was chartered as a market town and became a centre for dealing in cattle and wool for the surrounding villages during the Early Modern Era . Later, Rothbury developed extensively in the Victorian era, due in large part to the railway and the industrialist Sir William Armstrong . Between 1862 and 1865, Armstrong built Cragside ,
13746-576: The estate, Debdon, Tumbleton, Blackburn, and the Upper and Lower lakes at Nelly's Moss. In 1868, a hydraulic engine was installed. Inspired by a watermill on the Dee in Dentdale , in 1870 Armstrong installed a Siemens dynamo in what was the world's first hydroelectric power station . The generators, which also provided power for the farm buildings on the estate, were constantly extended and improved to meet
13904-508: The estate. In 1971 the National Trust asked the architectural historian Mark Girouard to compile a gazetteer of the most important Victorian houses in Britain which the Trust should seek to save should they ever be sold. Girouard placed Cragside at the top of the list; in 1977, the house was acquired by the Trust with the aid of a grant from the National Land Fund . A Grade I listed building since 1953, Cragside has been open to
14062-516: The fabric of a former Saxon edifice, including the chancel, the east wall of the south transept and the chancel arch. The church has a font with a stem or pedestal using a section of the Anglo-Saxon cross shaft, showing what is reputed to be the earliest carved representation in Great Britain of the Ascension of Christ. The Anglo-Saxon cross is not to be confused with the market cross near
14220-516: The family, and the idea that marriage should be based on romantic love gained popularity. A clear separation was established between the home and the workplace, which had often not been the case before. The home was seen as a private environment, where housewives provided their husbands with a respite from the troubles of the outside world. Within this ideal, women were expected to focus on domestic matters and to rely on men as breadwinners. Women had limited legal rights in most areas of life, and
14378-532: The fire station full-time but are paid to spend time on call to respond to emergencies. The station has a four by four fire engine. The building and its facilities are shared with Sure Start . Rothbury is served by a doctor's surgery and a hospital, Rothbury Community Hospital . The original facility was built as a private home known as Coquet House in 1872. It was converted into the Coquetdale Cottage Hospital in 1905. A maternity ward
14536-418: The first house in the world to be lit using hydroelectric power. The estate was technologically advanced; the architect of the house, Richard Norman Shaw , wrote that it was equipped with "wonderful hydraulic machines that do all sorts of things". In the grounds, Armstrong built dams and lakes to power a sawmill, a water-powered laundry, early versions of a dishwasher and a dumb waiter , a hydraulic lift and
14694-414: The first time. Whilst some attempts were made to improve living conditions, slum housing and disease remained a severe problem. The period saw significant scientific and technological development. Britain was advanced in industry and engineering in particular, but somewhat undeveloped in art and education. Great Britain's population increased rapidly, while Ireland's fell sharply. In the strictest sense,
14852-544: The highest parochial value in Northumberland by 1535. Feuds still dominated local affairs, resulting in some parishioners failing to attend church because of them in the 16th century, and at other times, gathering in armed groups in separate parts of the building. Rothbury became a relatively important town in Coquetdale , being a crossroads situated on a ford of the River Coquet, with turnpike roads leading to Newcastle upon Tyne , Alnwick , Hexham and Morpeth . After it
15010-468: The historian David Cannadine . David Dougan records the traditional claim that Armstrong planted over seven million trees in the gardens and parkland. The estate is a sanctuary for some of the last remaining red squirrel colonies in England. The glen north-west of the house is spanned by an iron bridge, crossing the Debdon Burn, constructed to Armstrong's design at his Elswick Works in the 1870s. It
15168-550: The house as "an extraordinarily accomplished Picturesque composition". Criticism focuses on the building's lack of overall coherence; in The National Trust Book of the English House, Aslet and Powers describe the house as "large and meandering", and the architectural critics Dixon and Muthesius write that "the plan rambles along the hillside". Saint is even more dismissive: for him, "the plan of Cragside
15326-580: The house for over 20 years. The long building period, and Armstrong's piecemeal, and changeable, approach to the development of the house, and his desire to retain the original shooting lodge at its core, occasionally led to tensions between client and architect, and to a building that lacks an overall unity. Armstrong changed the purpose of several rooms as his interests developed, and the German architectural historian Hermann Muthesius , writing just after Armstrong's death in 1900, noted that "the house did not find
15484-443: The house into a northern Neuschwanstein . The result was described by the architect and writer Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel as "one of the most dramatic compositions in all architecture". Armstrong filled the house with a significant art collection; he and his wife were patrons of many 19th-century British artists . Cragside became an integral part of Armstrong's commercial operations: honoured guests under Armstrong's roof, including
15642-513: The house makes a notable contrast with a country house that was almost contemporaneous with Cragside: the Villa Hügel constructed by Armstrong's greatest rival, Alfred Krupp . While Armstrong's Northumbrian fastness drew on Teutonic inspirations, his German competitor designed and built a house that was an exercise in neoclassicism . The location for the house was described by Mark Girouard as "a lunatic site". Pevsner and Richmond call both
15800-524: The house to be displayed: Armstrong's electrical room, in which he conducted experiments on electrical charges towards the end of his life, was re-opened in 2016. The experiments had led to the publication in 1897 of Armstrong's last work, Electrical Movement in Air and Water , illustrated with remarkable early photographs by his friend John Worsnop. The Trust continues the reconstruction of the wider estate, with plans to redevelop Armstrong's glasshouses, including
15958-408: The house's appliances and internal systems made Cragside a pioneer of home automation ; one of the first private residences to have a dishwasher, a vacuum cleaner and a washing machine, the conservators Sarah Schmitz and Caroline Rawson suggest Cragside was "the place where modern living began". The spit in the kitchen was also powered by hydraulics. The conservatory contained a self-watering system for
16116-414: The increasing electrical demands in the house. The 2006 regeneration project included extensive rewiring. A new screw turbine , with a 17-metre (56 ft)-long Archimedes' screw , was installed in 2014; it can provide 12 kW, supplying around 10 per cent of the property's electricity consumption. The electricity generated was used to power an arc lamp installed in the picture gallery in 1878. This
16274-448: The kitchen to prepare an eight-course menu which included oysters, turtle soup , stuffed turbot , venison, grouse, peaches in maraschino jelly and brown bread ice cream. Off the kitchen, under the library, is a Victorian Turkish bath , an unusual item in a Victorian private house. The writer Michael Hall suggests that the bath, with its plunge pool, was intended as much to demonstrate Armstrong's copious water supply as for actual use. As
16432-404: The known finds are from beyond the outer edges of the modern town. Sites include a cairnfield, standing stone and cup-marked rock on Debdon Moor to the north of the town, a well-preserved circular cairn some 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter, a late Neolithic or Bronze Age standing stone, and an extensive hillfort, covering an area 165 by 125 metres (541 by 410 ft) and associated cairnfield to
16590-531: The law for manufacturing and established W. G. Armstrong and Company at a site at Elswick , outside Newcastle. By the 1850s, with his design for the Armstrong Gun , Armstrong laid the foundations for an armaments firm that would, before the end of the century, see Krupp as its only world rival. He established himself as a figure of national standing: his work supplying artillery to the British Army
16748-436: The lighting for the room could be supplemented by a further eight lamps, powered by electric current transferred from the lamps in the dining room when they were no longer required. Lighting, and his means of providing it, mattered to Armstrong, on both technical and aesthetic levels; he wrote, "in the passageways and stairs the lamps are used without shades and present a most beautiful and star-like appearance." The drawing room
16906-423: The line closed completely on 9 November 1963. Rothbury station was located to the south of the River Coquet, and the site has been reused as an industrial estate, where the only obvious remains are one wall of the engine shed, which has become part of an engineering workshop. The old Station Hotel still stands near the site, but is now known as The Coquetvale Hotel. It was built in the 1870s by William Armstrong, as
17064-420: The management of sewage and water eventually giving the UK the most advanced system of public health protection anywhere in the world. The quality and safety of household lighting improved over the period with oil lamps becoming the norm in the early 1860s, gas lighting in the 1890s and electric lights beginning to appear in the homes of the richest by the end of the period. Medicine advanced rapidly during
17222-439: The manager, Mr Farndale. As PC Sinton approached the brewery one of the two men appeared from it and shot at Sinton, missing him only slightly, and the two began to tussle as the second man appeared from the brewery and smashed Sinton's head with an iron bar. Curry and Farndale arrived finding PC Sinton laying on the ground, Farnsdale struggled with one of the assailant, however he managed to fight Farnsdale off leaving Farnsdale with
17380-404: The manor of Rothbury were given to Robert Fitz Roger, the baron of Warkworth . Edward I visited the town in 1291, when Fitz Roger obtained a charter to authorise the holding of a market every Thursday, and a three-day annual fair near St Matthew's Day, celebrated on 21 September. Rothbury was not particularly significant at the time, with records from 1310 showing that it consisted of a house,
17538-444: The middle of the 19th century to 'diminished cruelty to animals, criminals, lunatics, and children (in that order)'. Legal restrictions were placed on cruelty to animals. Restrictions were placed on the working hours of child labourers in the 1830s and 1840s. Further interventions took place throughout the century to increase the level of child protection. Use of the death penalty also decreased. Crime rates fell significantly in
17696-494: The middle- and working-classes a role in politics. However, all women and a large minority of men remained outside the system into the early 20th century. Cities were given greater political autonomy and the labour movement was legalised. From 1845 to 1852, the Potato Famine caused mass starvation, disease and death in Ireland, sparking large-scale emigration. The Corn Laws were repealed in response to this. Across
17854-549: The original printing blocks and rehung in the National Trust's renovations. The gallery originally formed Armstrong's museum room and was built by Shaw between 1872 and 1874. It led to the observatory in the Gilnockie Tower. Later, the room formed a processional route to the newly created drawing room, and was transformed into a gallery for pictures and sculpture. Its lighting displayed further evidence of Armstrong's technical ingenuity. Provided with twelve overhead lamps,
18012-563: The palm house, the ferneries and the orchid house. Cragside is an example of Shaw's Tudor revival style; the Pevsner Architectural Guide for Northumberland called it "the most dramatic Victorian mansion in the North of England ". The entrance front was described by Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel as "one of the most dramatic compositions in all architecture", and the architectural historian James Stevens Curl regarded
18170-514: The population in 1800 to less than a third by 1901. However, 1890s studies suggested that almost 10% of the urban population lived in a state of desperation lacking the food necessary to maintain basic physical functions. Attitudes towards the poor were often unsympathetic and they were frequently blamed for their situation. In that spirit, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 had been deliberately designed to punish them and would remain
18328-467: The pot plants, which turned on water-powered revolving stands. Telephony was introduced, both between the rooms in the house, and between the house and other buildings on the estate. A plaque at Bamburgh Castle , Armstrong's other residence on the Northumbrian coast, records that his development of these new automated technologies "emancipated ... much of the world from household drudgery". Cragside
18486-465: The public since 1979. William Armstrong was born on 26 November 1810 in Newcastle upon Tyne , the son of a corn merchant. Trained as a solicitor, he moved to London before he was twenty. Returning to Newcastle, in 1835 he met and married Margaret Ramshaw, the daughter of a builder. A keen amateur scientist, Armstrong began to conduct experiments in both hydraulics and electricity. In 1847, he abandoned
18644-548: The robbers cut the telephone wires, blocked the main road with a stolen council van, and threatened local residents. The then MP for Rothbury, Liberal Democrat Alan Beith said the event showed rural communities like Rothbury needed extra police cover to fight organised crime. Detective Inspector John Hope, who led the investigation, stated that too much of focus on cities leads to organized crime moving to rural villages. He also said that improving roads to give better police access to rural villages would help decrease crime, and that
18802-404: The room is designed and decorated in a grander and more opulent Renaissance taste. The billiard room extension of 1895 is by Frederick Waller. It replaced a laboratory, in which Armstrong conducted experiments in electric currents. The billiard table and furniture were supplied by Burroughes and Watts . The billiard room and adjacent gun room formed a smoking suite, the previous absence of which
18960-465: The sale of much of the great art collection in 1910. In 1972, the death of Watson-Armstrong's heir, William John Montagu Watson-Armstrong, saw the house and estate threatened by large-scale residential development, intended to raise the money to pay a large inheritance tax bill. In 1971, when advising the National Trust on the most important Victorian houses to be preserved for the nation in the event of their sale, Mark Girouard had identified Cragside as
19118-405: The second half of the 19th century. Sociologist Christie Davies linked this change to attempts to morally educate the population, especially at Sunday schools . Contrary to popular belief, Victorian society understood that both men and women enjoyed copulation . Chastity was expected of women, whilst attitudes to male sexual behaviour were more relaxed. The development of police forces led to
19276-524: The setting and the house Wagnerian. The ledge on which it stands is narrow, and space for the repeated expansions could only be found by dynamiting the rock face behind, or by building upwards. Such challenges only drove Armstrong on, and overcoming the technical barriers to construction gave him great pleasure. His task was made easier by the use of the workforce and the technology of the Elswick Works. The architectural historian Jill Franklin notes that
19434-411: The south-east from 1882. This includes the drawing room, completed for the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales, in August 1884. The house has been a Grade I listed building since 21 October 1953, the listing citing inter alia its "largely complete Victorian interior". The architectural correspondent of The Times , Marcus Binney , who was closely involved in the campaign to bring Cragside to
19592-402: The spread of diseases and squalid living conditions in many places exacerbated the problem. The population of England, Scotland and Wales grew rapidly during the 19th century. Various factors are considered contributary to this, including a rising fertility rate (though it was falling by the end of the period), the lack of a catastrophic pandemic or famine in the island of Great Britain during
19750-496: The top priority. A major campaign saw the house and grounds acquired by the Trust in 1977, with the aid of a grant from the National Land Fund . In 2007, Cragside reopened after undergoing an 18-month refurbishment programme that included rewiring the whole house. It has become one of the most-visited sites in North East England , with some 255,005 visitors in 2019. The Trust continues restoration work, allowing more of
19908-418: The top-lit ceiling and the elaborate Jacobethan plasterwork . Others have been less complimentary; the writer Reginald Turnor, no admirer either of Shaw or of Victorian architecture and its architects more generally, wrote of the room's "flamboyant and rather sickening detail". By the time of its construction, Shaw, increasingly working for clients of great wealth, had moved on from his "Old English" style, and
20066-484: The trees on the estate; fireworks were launched from six balloons, and a great bonfire was lit on the Simonside Hills . On the second day of their visit, the Prince and Princess travelled to Newcastle, to formally open the grounds of Armstrong's old house, Jesmond Dean, which he had by then donated to the city as a public park. It is still a public park today, a ravine known as Jesmond Dene . Three years later, at
20224-476: The trust advised that a group was working on proposals for the future of remaining services at the hospital. The closure caused controversy and a local protest was established called Save Rothbury Cottage Hospital. Rothbury's (Conservative) MP , Anne-Marie Trevelyan condemned the closure to inpatients in Parliament on 9 March 2017. Rothbury is located in Northumberland , England, on the River Coquet , it
20382-514: The unification of the kingdoms of England and Scotland in 1603. The theologian Bernard Gilpin , known as the 'Apostle of the North' for his work in northern England during this period, visited Rothbury. While he preached a sermon, two rival gangs were threatening each other; realising they might start fighting, Gilpin stood between them asking them to reconcile – they agreed as long as Gilpin stayed in their presence. On another occasion, Gilpin observed
20540-418: The unqualified favour with Shaw's followers that his previous works had done, nor did it entirely satisfy (Shaw)". Nevertheless, Shaw's abilities, as an architect and as a manager of difficult clients, ensured that Cragside was composed "with memorable force". As well as being Armstrong's home, Cragside acted as an enormous display case for his ever-expanding art collection. The best of his pictures were hung in
20698-409: The vertiginous fall of the site is so steep that the drawing room, on a level with the first-floor landing at the front of the house, meets the rock face at the back. Jenkins describes the plan of the house as "simpler than the exterior suggests". The majority of the reception rooms are located on the ground floor, as are the accompanying service rooms. The exception is the large extension Shaw added to
20856-402: The war effort, and the evangelical movement's push for moral improvement. There is evidence that the expected standards of moral behaviour were reflected in action as well as rhetoric across all classes of society. For instance, an analysis suggested that less than 5% of working class couples cohabited before marriage. Historian Harold Perkin argued that the change in moral standards led by
21014-522: The west of the town. No evidence of the Roman period has been found, probably because the town was a considerable distance north beyond Hadrian's Wall . Fragments from an Anglo-Saxon cross , possibly dating from the 9th century, are the only surviving relics pre-dating the Norman conquest . They were discovered in 1849, when part of the church was demolished, and in 1856. They are now in the town church and
21172-407: The windows of the inglenook is by William Morris, and other glass from Morris & Co. , to designs by Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Webb and Ford Madox Brown , was installed in the library, gallery and upper stairs. The Owl rooms were constructed in the first building campaign and formed a suite for important guests. Their name derives from the carved owls that decorate the woodwork and the bed. The room
21330-432: Was Albert Joseph Moore 's Follow My Leader , dating from 1872. Andrew Saint considers the room "Shaw's greatest domestic interior". The dining room off the library contains a "Gothic" fireplace with an inglenook . A portrait of Armstrong by Henry Hetherington Emmerson shows him sitting in the inglenook with his dogs, under a carved inscription on the mantlepiece reading East or West, Hame's Best . The stained glass in
21488-439: Was a food critic and she said she would recommend he should come up to see us in Rothbury to sample our speciality sausages. And Prince Charles congratulated us on keeping alive the traditions of the trade and providing meat that was sourced locally. He urged us to keep up the good work. It was amazing, really." The Parish Council meets on the second Wednesday of each month (apart from August) with meetings commencing at 7 pm in
21646-420: Was a friend of both, and recommended that Shaw design an extension to the banqueting hall Armstrong had previously built in the grounds. When this was completed in 1869, Shaw was asked for enlargements and improvements to the shooting lodge Armstrong had had built at Rothbury four years earlier. This was the genesis of the transformation of the house between 1869 and 1884. Over the next thirty years, Cragside became
21804-469: Was a historian from Rothbury. He previously worked in his father's draper's shop , William Dixon and Sons, set up in Coquetdale House. After William Dixon died, David Dippie Dixon and his brother John Turnbull Dixon renamed the shop Dixon Bros. On 9 November 2006, Rothbury was visited by another Prince of Wales and future King, Edward VIII's 2nd Great Grandson , Prince Charles , who is now
21962-861: Was added, as a lasting memorial to soldiers who died in the Second World War in 1946. It joined the National Health Service in 1948 and the adjoining Hawthorn Cottage was acquired in 1956. After Hawthorn Cottage had been converted into a physiotherapy department, it was officially re-opened by Jimmy Savile in 1990. After the old hospital became dilapidated, modern facilities were built in Whitton Bank Road and opened in 2007, by local GP , Dr. Angus Armstrong, and his son, TV presenter, Alexander Armstrong . The new hospital closed to inpatients in September 2016 and in June 2019
22120-924: Was born in Rothbury, was made patron of the festival, in 2021 Armstrong announced the return of the Music Festival from an erupting Icelandic volcano in a video posted on the Facebook page of the Festival after it was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Notable music acts that have performed at the festival include: 2015: 2019: 2021: Rothbury has a tune about it called " Rothbury Hills ," written by Jack Armstrong in 1944. It has been performed by Kathryn Tickell on her 2009 album "Northumberland Collection", and Alexander Armstrong wrote and sang some lyrics to it on his 2015 album " A Year of Songs ". Rothbury has its own pipe band , called
22278-412: Was buried beside his wife in the churchyard at Rothbury. His gravestone carries an epitaph: His scientific attainments gained him a world wide celebrity and his great philanthropy the gratitude of the poor . Cragside, and Armstrong's fortune, were inherited by his great-nephew, William Watson-Armstrong . Watson-Armstrong lacked Armstrong's commercial acumen and a series of poor financial investments led to
22436-485: Was chartered as a market town in 1291, it became a centre for dealing in cattle and wool for the surrounding villages. A market cross was erected in 1722, but demolished in 1827. In the 1760s, according to Bishop Pococke , Rothbury also had a small craft industry, including hatters. At that time, the parish church's vicarage and living was in the gift of the Bishop of Carlisle , and worth £500 per year. Rothbury has had
22594-405: Was constructed in the 1880s phase of building, when Armstrong had sold his Jesmond house and was residing solely at Cragside. Aslet suggests that the inspiration for the design was the great hall at Haddon Hall , Derbyshire , although Saint considers Shaw's Dawpool Hall , Cheshire as the more likely source. Pevsner and Richmond mention Hardwick Hall and Hatfield House as possible models for
22752-534: Was expanded again by the Second Reform Act in 1867. The Third Reform Act in 1884 introduced a general principle of one vote per household. All these acts and others simplified the electoral system and reduced corruption. Historian Bruce L Kinzer describes these reforms as putting the United Kingdom on the path towards becoming a democracy. The traditional aristocratic ruling class attempted to maintain as much influence as possible while gradually allowing
22910-485: Was generally then known as natural philosophy, but it took a while to catch on. Having been previously dominated by amateurs with a separate income, the Royal Society admitted only professionals from 1847 onwards. The British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley indicated in 1852 that it remained difficult to earn a living as a scientist alone. Scientific knowledge and debates such as that about Charles Darwin 's On
23068-448: Was given to social reform. Utilitarianism was another philosophy that saw itself as based on science rather than on morality, but also emphasised social progress. An alliance formed between these two ideological strands. The reformers emphasised causes such as improving the conditions of women and children, giving police reform priority over harsh punishment to prevent crime, religious equality, and political reform in order to establish
23226-473: Was in contemporaneous usage to describe the era. The era can also be understood in a more extensive sense—the 'long Victorian era'—as a period that possessed sensibilities and characteristics distinct from the periods adjacent to it, in which case it is sometimes dated to begin before Victoria's accession—typically from the passage of or agitation for (during the 1830s) the Reform Act 1832 , which introduced
23384-402: Was industrialist Sir William Armstrong , later Lord Armstrong of Cragside, who built the country house, and "shooting box" ( hunting lodge ), of Cragside , between 1862 and 1865, then extended it as a "fairy palace" between 1869 and 1900. The house and its estate are now in the possession of the National Trust and are open to the public. Another factor in Rothbury's Victorian development was
23542-401: Was low, punishments severe, work was dangerous and disrupted children's development (often leaving them too tired to play even in their free time). Early labour could do lifelong harm; even in the 1960s and '70s, the elderly people of industrial towns were noted for their often unusually short stature, deformed physiques, and diseases associated with unhealthy working conditions. Reformers wanted
23700-462: Was nevertheless constructed and furnished to a high standard. Armstrong's architect for Cragside's expansion was the Scot R. Norman Shaw . Shaw had begun his career in the office of William Burn and had later studied under Anthony Salvin and George Edmund Street . Salvin had taught him the mastery of internal planning which was essential for the design of the large and highly variegated houses which
23858-479: Was often the case, Armstrong also found practical application for his pleasures: steam generated while warming dry air for the Turkish bath supported the provision of heating for the house. Girouard describes the library as "one of the most sympathetic Victorian rooms in England". It belongs to the first phase of Shaw's construction work and was completed in 1872. It has a large bay window which gives views out over
24016-503: Was on 10 April 1965. The site is now used by Rothbury Golf Club. Half a mile to the south, Whitton Tower is an exceptionally well-preserved 14th-century pele tower . Lordenshaw Hill has an important concentration of rock carvings, amounting to over 100 panels in an area of less than 620 acres. Carved panels include cup-marked boulders and complex panels. Other archaeological sites in this area include an Iron Age enclosure and an Early Bronze Age cairn . Similar to lordenshaw, there
24174-488: Was permissible to the Victorian nobleman in the way of erotica ". The kitchen is large by Victorian standards and forms a considerable apartment with the butler's pantry. It displays Armstrong's "technical ingenuity" to the full, having a dumb waiter and a spit both run on hydraulic power. An electric gong announced mealtimes. For the visit of Edward and Alexandra, Armstrong brought in the Royal caterers, Gunters , who used
24332-494: Was replaced in 1880 by Joseph Swan 's incandescent lamps in what Swan considered "the first proper installation" of electric lighting. Armstrong knew Swan well and had chaired the presentation of Swan's new lamps to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne . Historic England describes Cragside as the "first (house) in the world to be lit by electricity derived from water power". The use of electricity to run
24490-526: Was seen as an important response to the failures of Britain's forces during the Crimean War . In 1859, he was knighted and made Engineer of Rifled Ordnance, becoming the principal supplier of armaments to both the Army and the Navy . Armstrong had spent much of his childhood at Rothbury , escaping from industrial Newcastle for the benefit of his often poor health. He returned to the area in 1862, not having taken
24648-469: Was staying in August 1897, when activity at the Elswick Works was disrupted by a bitter strike over pay and hours. In August 1884 the Prince and Princess of Wales (the future Edward VII and Queen Alexandra ) made a three-day visit to Cragside; it was the peak of Armstrong's social career. The royal arrival at the house was illuminated by ten thousand lamps and a vast array of Chinese lanterns hung in
24806-468: Was the predominant power in the world. Victorian society valued a high standard of personal conduct across all sections of society. The emphasis on morality gave impetus to social reform but also placed restrictions on certain groups' liberty. Prosperity rose during the period, but debilitating undernutrition persisted. Literacy and childhood education became near universal in Great Britain for
24964-432: Was well developed, education and the arts were mediocre. Wage rates continued to improve in the later 19th century: real wages (after taking inflation into account) were 65 per cent higher in 1901 compared to 1871. Much of the money was saved, as the number of depositors in savings banks rose from 430,000 in 1831 to 5.2 million in 1887, and their deposits from £14 million to over £90 million. Children had always played
#247752