Cragside is a wonderful estate in north Northumberland, managed by the National Trust.

I first visited many years ago on a school trip.

My memories are of the beautiful landscape; verdant walks amongst the craggy rocks.

Cragside was built by William Armstrong, a Victorian inventor genius.

It was the first house in the world to be lit by hydro-electricity, generated by water descending from reservoirs Armstrong had etched into the landscape.

Armstrong had a lifelong love and respect for nature.

As an engineer he experimented with natural forces, learning to manipulate and harness them for his own ends.

Armstrong developed a successful business designing and exporting his hydraulic mechanisms around the world.

He established a factory in Newcastle, sitting on a bend of the River Tyne in Elswick.  

Victorians built things to last, and the market for cranes, bridges and the like could not expand indefinitely.  

An under-productive factory costs money.

Armstrong needed a plan.

In 1853 reports arrived from the Crimean War, decrying the ineffective armoury deployed by the British. 

Armstrong had a new technological challenge.

He designed a better gun.

The Armstrong Gun was very successful.

He received an exclusive contract from the British Government.

Armstrong's business flourished as the British needed more and more guns to help them establish their many colonies abroad.

Armstrong received a knighthood for his work.

However his relationship with the Government soured, and he left his post as their exclusive arms manufacturer.

With no guaranteed sales, Armstrong was left with a problem.  

How to recoup the investment he'd made on his factory in Newcastle?

This is when Armstrong became an international arms dealer, and this is how he made his fortune.

He found and nurtured new markets for his weapons abroad.

Allegedly arming both sides of the American Civil War.

Always innovating, he developed new, increasingly lethal weapons.

Armstrong supplied arms across the world.

Any guilt was assauged by framing the business as patriotic. Armstrong's manager Lord Stuart Rendel reasoned that selling arms to foreign counties made them "dependent on us for their munitions of war", thereby increasing British influence in the world.

Cragside was built on the proceeds.

Armstrong used it as a space to impress and entertain his clients.

Over time, Armstrong's factory changed hands, as businesses do.

Yet the production of armaments has remained central to the site, still named Armstrong Works, located just by the River Tyne.