The story of Cragside, the UK’s first ‘smart home’

This is arguably the UK’s first smart home. Built on a rocky hillside in Northumberland, Cragside was the country home of engineer and industrialist Lord William Armstrong.

As founder of the Elswick Works in Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong was a pioneer in hydraulic machinery, shipbuilding and armaments. He invented the hydraulic accumulator and designed the mechanism that operates London’s iconic Tower Bridge. Cragside was his personal laboratory – a domestic testing ground for the hydraulic and electrical theories he was pioneering on an industrial scale.

In 1868, he installed a hydraulic engine in the house that was used to power laundry equipment, a hydraulic lift and a rotisserie. Two years later, he built the world’s first hydroelectric power station using water from the estate’s artificial lakes and used the resulting electricity to power first an arc lamp, and then later Joseph Swan’s new incandescent lamps.

In 2014, the estate’s renewable energy heritage was revitalised when a 17m-long Archimedes screw hydro-turbine was installed. Generating around 10kW of electricity, the modern system produces enough continuous power to light all 350 lightbulbs in the main house. 

Today, the historic pump house, the original water turbines and the revolutionary Victorian machinery remain preserved and on display for the public through the National Trust.

Cragside’s pioneering hydroelectric system was recognised with an IMechE Engineering Heritage Award in 1985. Find out more about award-winning engineering heritage projects here.

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