Yesterday I visited Cragside the first house to be lit by electricity produced by water. The house was built for the Victorian industrialist Lord Armstrong. It was full of other new technology such as a hydraulic lift, running hot and cold water and telephone.

The house is very aptly named as it is built on crag surrounded by one of the largest rock gardens in Europe. The most impressive feature of the house is the enormous two tier renaissance style marble fireplace in the drawing room. However there are some smaller more intimate rooms. I liked the owl suite, where the wooden bed frame had carved owls on the four bed posts and the lions carved at the top of the banister on the stairs.

There are many footpaths around the estate. We walked around the two lakes constructed to produce the hydroelectricity. There is a large adventure playground for kids. You can easily spend a whole day at Cragside.

[tags]historic houses, family days out[/tags]