Welcome to Cragside, Britain's original smart home
and a feat of Victorian engineering. It was created by Lord William Armstrong,
an inventor engineer and weapons manufacturer. It was a place that was created with pioneering
technology to create a level of comfort and efficiency never before seen. And the
face of climate change the renewable energy pioneered here has never been more important.
Cragside is a truly unique place that has always been special to our members and visitors
and it's always been somewhere that's harnessed the power of nature. In 1863 Lord Armstrong
gave a speech in which he outlined his fears about our over-consumption of fossil fuels
and he predicted that they would eventually run out. That's why here at Cragside
he experimented with the power of hydroelectricity and why Cragside
is the first place in the world to be lit using the power of water.
So climate change affects all of us but we're starting to see its impact here at Cragside
and it is one of the big threats to our ongoing ability to care for this special
place and to make sure that it's here for years to come.
So we are in the drawing room at Cragside and this spectacular room was completed in 1884
just in time from a Royal visit from the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Its centre piece is this enormous fireplace behind me. It's about ten tons of marble and alabaster
shipped up from London to Amble and then reassembled here at Cragside.
Unfortunately the fireplace is now under threat. Increased heavy rainfall and storms are causing
water to make its way into the building, that's causing the formation of salts on
the surfaces of the marble and plaster work that's starting to cause it to deteriorate.
So i'm standing in one of the parapet gutters to the rear of the building to my left is the
roof of the billiard room and the drawing room is beyond that. And from here you can get a real
sense of why Cragside is called Cragside, the building is literally built into the hillside
and when we get heavy downpours the rainwater pours off of the hillside straight onto our roofs
and the guttering system here can no longer cope with that volume of water.
We've commissioned an investigation to work out how we can resolve this problem
and make sure that we can look after Cragside for many years to come.
In 1878 Cragside became the first place in the world to be lit using hydroelectricity.
In 1880 there was another world first here in the library
when these lamps were lit using Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulb.
Armstrong generated hydroelectricity using the artificial lakes that he created on the estate.
Next we're going to show you how we still use water-power to help us light the house.
In 2014 we reintroduced hydroelectricity to Cragside. Just as Armstrong did, we use water
from Tumbleton Lake, just over here, to generate power. But instead of using his historic system
we now have a 17 meter long steel turbine that's just behind me
and that generates enough power to light the 350 light bulbs at the house.
We have a responsibility to care for these special places for everyone, forever and in the midst of a
climate crisis that has never been more vital. Thank you for your continued support.