Green pioneers

DAZZLINGLY bright and dangerous, electric lamps flicker into life in a corner of Northumberland in 1878. These carbon arc lamps glare and fizz in the gallery at Cragside, built by William, 1st Baron Armstrong, and his wife, Margaret, and mark a brilliant new era: they are powered by hydroelectricity, making this the first home in the world to be lit by electricity generated from water. ‘It was a game changer,’ explains Clara Woolford, National Trust curator at Cragside, ‘which had huge ramifications in our modern quest to produce renewable energy.’

The Armstrongs were a Victorian power couple : Lord Armstrong an