Bamburgh Castle

The Armstrong Museum

In the early 1800’s a young man called William Armstrong, left his home village of Wreay, near Carlisle and settled in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Here he hoped to make his fortune and he soon found work as a clerk with a firm of corn merchants.

Lord Armstrong in rodes Through ambition and diligent work within the company he progressed, becoming a partner in the firm and eventually became the owner when the other partners retired.

It was to this prosperous corn merchant and his wife, Anne Potter, now residing at No. 9 Pleasant Row, Shieldfield, Newcastle, that a second child, a son, was born on 26th November 1810. He was named William George Armstrong who was to become a leading engineer and a leader of progress in the industrial field during his lifetime.

As a child he suffered ill health, missing much schooling. When he received gifts of toys, he wasn’t content with playing with them. Instead he would take them to bits to find out how they worked.

His father was friendly with a successful solicitor, Armorer Donkin, who had a country estate at Rothbury, and the young William and his sister Anne, (8 years his senior) were often invited to spend holidays there. Donkin, who had no children, treated them as his own. It was here that William spent many happy hours fishing in the river, earning the nick name of “The Kingfisher”.

At the age of sixteen, while attending a grammar school at Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham, his enthusiasm for engineering found him paying frequent visits to a local engineering works. He became friends with the owner, William Ramshaw, and his daughter Margaret, who later became his wife.

On leaving school, his father had already mapped out his career. He had arranged with his friend Donkin, that William should join his firm to train as a solicitor. To please his father the young William, although reluctant, carried out his fathers wishes and in 1835 he qualified as a lawyer and became a partner in the business. In this same year he also married Margaret Ramshaw.

He still kept up his interest in mechanics and in 1847 and with the help of Donkin, who encouraged his interest agreed, with five other backers, to help William in the purchase of five and a half acres of land at Elswick, Newcastle.

It was here that he developed his plans for the building of a Hydraulic Crane, the first of its kind in the world, built by Armstrong and demonstrated on the Newcastle Quayside. The first order to be received was from Liverpool Docks and soon more docks and railways were turning to Elswick for their needs.

During the Crimean War he turned his attention to armaments by producing the rifle barrelled breach loading gun for the British Army. It was recognised as the finest of its kind in the world. He presented the patent for this gun to the government and in return in 1859 he was given a peerage and appointed to the Royal Ordnance Factory at Woolwich.

Lord Armstrong In 1864 work began on the construction of a country home for Armstrong. It became known as Cragside.

In 1867 Agreement with Mitchells of Low Walker was reached that Armstrongs should build naval vessels in his yard. The following year Armstrongs’ first vessel the gunboat “Staunch” was launched at Walker.

On 17th July 1876, the new Swing Bridge across the Tyne was used for the first time, the opening machinery for the bridge having been built at Elswick. As the bridge opened to allow the Italian ship, “Europa” to sail through, it was greeted by a large cheering crowd on the quayside. The “Europa” was on a mission to collect the first of a batch of six 100 - ton guns, ordered from Elswick by the Italian government.

By 1883 the construction of shipyard and steel works at Elswick was well advanced and two years later the first ship “The Panther”, was launched for Austria. Land was also purchased at Pozzuoli for Italian factory.

Bamburgh Castle was purchased by Armstrong in 1894 for the sum of £60,000. His intention was to restore it as a convalescent home for retired gentlemen. A million pounds was spent on the restoration but Armstrong died before it was completed. When the second lord came into being he did not carry out Lord Armstrong’s wish. Instead he built Armstrong House in Bamburgh village and to this day it serves as a home for retired people. It is called Abbeyfield.

In 1897 amalgamation with Sir Joseph Whitworth & Co. was approved.

On 27th December 1900 Lord Armstrong died at Cragside. At the time of his death he had 25,000 employees on his payroll.

Armstrong was a generous benefactor to the city of Newcastle. He donated to hospitals, schools, libraries and housing for his workers. Land on his estate at Jesmond Dene, was gifted to the people of the city for their recreation and leisure.

Left: The Armstrong accumulator

Right : A general View of part of the museum.