Rothbury landmark wins prestigious national heritage award

Northumberland’s great contribution to saving the planet began at Cragend Farm, with its unique buildings, arguably one of the finest purpose-built agricultural buildings in the world and a brilliant example of Lord Armstrong of Cragside’s engineering innovations.

It has won the Historic Houses Collections Award – Custodian Prize 2023.

It honours the creators, owners, curators, researchers, and conservators who preserve, augment, restore and interpret these beautiful and significant objects, enabling the public to understand and enjoy them and the stories that they tell.

This pioneering farm houses original Victorian machinery that was seen as the cutting edge of technology in its time.

It was a demonstration centre for hydraulics to show case the value of water powered machines on modern Victorian life, by showing that even agricultural work, seen as the hardest of all labour, could be made simpler.

This 150 acre farm was created out of the mountain landscape of Cragend Hill where Cragside Estate sits, by inventor and arms manufacturer Lord William Armstrong, with his wife Lady Margaret Armstrong, who also renovated Bamburgh Castle in his dotage.

Visitors can do a walking tour around the farm looking at its history throughout the ages from its earliest recorded settlers of the Iron Age, examining the buildings and the history they unfold from Border Reivers to visiting royalty. Seeing and touching the machinery is part of the tour, as well as the award-winning collection of artefacts and research linked to this amazing farm.

Book via https://www.historichouses.org/tours/ or direct through the Cragend Farm website.