Northumberland Glorious Gardens from Above


Northumberland

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Britain has some of the finest gardens anywhere in the world.

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For me, it's about getting in

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amongst the wonderful plants that flourish

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in this country and sharing the passion of the people who tend them.

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However, there is another way to enjoy a garden.

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And that's to get up above it.

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I love ballooning because you get to see the world below

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in a whole new light.

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From up here, you get a real sense of how the garden sits

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in the landscape, how the terrain and the climate have shaped it.

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And I want you to share that experience with me.

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It's so early in the morning that I reckon most people round

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here are still asleep.

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But I can't resist picking up a few souvenir snaps!

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I'm heading to a county with some of the most stunning landscapes

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anywhere in the UK.

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Today, we're in Northumberland,

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England's most northerly county.

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To the west lies Cumbria, with its gentle fells and its hillsides.

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And to the north, the Scottish borders.

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Northumberland is Britain's most sparsely populated county,

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but it has huge historical importance.

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Over the years, Vikings invaded it, shipbuilding brought

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prosperity to it, and two nations fought bitterly over it.

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The history of the county is full of stories of battles

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between the English and the Scots.

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But I'm here for its gardens.

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Today, I'm visiting two gardens that in their time both saw dreams

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come true.

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One, where a Victorian inventor was inspired by nature

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and changed the world.

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It's the simplicity of turning water into light.

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And the second, where one man's longing for a country retreat

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led to the creation of this tiny masterpiece.

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-Couldn't be nicer, could it?

-Not on a day like today.

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And along the way, I'll be meeting the people lucky enough to look

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after these two very special places.

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SHE LAUGHS

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Whoof!

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The first garden I'm dropping in on is not just a wonder

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of the gardening world,

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it's pretty significant in the history of science, too.

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Nearly 150 years ago what happened in this house, Cragside,

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transformed the way we power our homes.

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And the secret lies in the water that flows through the estate.

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Because this was once the home of a very remarkable man indeed.

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From the air, you can see how large the estate of Cragside is.

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The hillsides are planted with conifers and rhododendrons.

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It has one of the largest rock gardens in Europe.

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And the formal terraces are planted with stunning Victorian bedding.

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And I can't wait to get down there.

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Of all the gardens I've visited,

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Cragside is one of the most dramatic.

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It's remote - over 30 miles from the nearest city, Newcastle.

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Its nearest town is Rothbury

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and the house itself is nestled deep in a setting of forests and lakes.

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But although this countryside looks natural,

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it's actually a completely artificial landscape.

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Cragside, a Victorian period piece that zings with colour and history.

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Beautiful colours smeared across the landscape on a hill

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and fantastic trees, maintaining traditions of the long-gone.

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But not in this garden.

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History, colour, and zing to excite any garden visitor.

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Cragside was the home of Victorian industrialist

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and inventor William Armstrong.

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Armstrong was born in Newcastle in 1810.

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After an early career as a solicitor,

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he followed his childhood dream

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and became an inventor.

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He came up with a design for the world's first hydraulic crane

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and developed an improved battlefield gun.

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He set up a factory employing thousands and, in the process,

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became one of the wealthiest men in the north of England.

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In an age of industrial innovation, Armstrong was a giant character,

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becoming the first engineer to take a seat in the House of Lords.

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He bought the land here to create a country retreat,

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and he and his wife, Margaret,

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commissioned this unconventional mansion.

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And they set about creating an equally extraordinary garden.

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It covers four square kilometres

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and truly emphasises the drama of Cragside's location.

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There are the outsized boulders of the rock garden and

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the steep valley of rhododendrons.

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And a formal garden with terraces, beds, and borders.

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There's also a pinetum, or conifer collection, which contains

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trees from around the world, some of them over 140 years old.

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It's said that Lord and Lady Armstrong planted

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over seven million trees in the estate.

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Mind you, they did have 150 gardeners to help them.

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Today, I'm going to add one more tree to the collection.

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I'm heading down to the pinetum to help plant Cragside's latest

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addition, a South African mountain cypress.

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I'm meeting Dale Stephens, who's worked here for 22 years

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and has been in charge of the garden since 2014.

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-Hi, Dale, how are you?

-Hi, Christine. I'm very well, thank you.

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-I'm in a super setting for it.

-It's fantastic, isn't it?

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-Yeah.

-It's wonderful.

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-So, shall we drop this in?

-Yeah, let's just get this in.

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I'll just dig a small hole.

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So, how did you get into gardening?

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Basically, just spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house.

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They had a small holding of 2.5 acres.

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-It had pigs and...

-Right.

-..a veg patch and all that kind of thing.

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-Yeah.

-So I got the bug, really,

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and then I saw a little ad that was advertised to come and do training

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-at Cragside.

-Yeah.

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So I was on that placement for 11 months and then, luckily,

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a job came up. So I've been here 22 years now.

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-Goodness! Right.

-And gradually worked my way up from, basically,

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-apprentice right through to...

-Excellent.

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..what is the head gardener's position at the moment.

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-Great.

-It's a fantastic, fantastic place.

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-I love it.

-Absolutely.

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So what makes Cragside so special to you?

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Look around, really. It's a fantastic spot.

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Atmospheric. As a horticulturalist, you get to play around with trees,

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plants, shrubs, you name it, things that are unusual,

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-things you never see elsewhere.

-Yeah.

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And just working in this, it's just absolutely to die for, you know?

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It really is. It's one of them places,

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you know you've made it when you get here.

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'This sapling won't become one of the giants of the pinetum,

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'but will grow into a pretty, medium-sized evergreen tree.'

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-Are you happy with that depth?

-Perfect.

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Absolutely perfect. So...

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Would you like to get some of that muck in there?

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Do you have a favourite place in the garden?

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Not one particular, no.

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It's a combination, little bit of everything.

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I like the pinetum that we're in at the moment.

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I like the rock garden. And I also like the formal garden.

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Again, every bit has its own little idiosyncrasies,

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you know, so it's quite nice to manage them in that sort of way.

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-Yeah.

-We've only got a small team of gardeners.

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There's four of us full-time

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to look after approximately 40 acres.

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And how many volunteers?

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Ten volunteers, three garden guides,

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one trainee, and one seasonal gardener.

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Right. So they're busy.

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To put it in perspective,

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the rock garden is 4.5 acres.

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-One person looks after 4.5 acres.

-And you work hard.

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You do, yes, that's right.

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Talking about hard work, come on, let's go

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-and put some more things in.

-Come on, then.

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Like lots of couples,

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Lord and Lady Armstrong split their gardening duties.

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She was in charge of the plants

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and he looked after the hard landscaping.

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In the grounds of the estate,

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he dammed several rivers, creating five lakes.

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All this water was to prove the inspiration for his greatest

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achievement, generating the power to make Cragside the first house

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to be lit by electricity.

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Andrew Sawyer has worked at Cragside for over 30 years.

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Better than anyone, he knows the story of how Lord Armstrong's vision

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changed the modern world.

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His great dream really was water power, and that was

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the essence of everything he did right from the start.

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By the time he bought Cragside, Armstrong had made a fortune

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from water power by inventing the world's first hydraulic crane.

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It revolutionised every ship dock, every railway.

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It meant that men weren't lifting things physically.

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It was all done by the power of water.

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After this success, his ambitions for using water power grew.

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He'd used every bit of technology that he'd both developed

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as an engineer and what was available at the time.

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He used this lake here at Tumbleton to run

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a hydraulic engine,

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which pumped 5,000 gallons of water to the house each day,

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which gave him the ability to run a passenger lift in the house

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so he didn't even have to walk up the stairs to go to bed.

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He even turned the meat in front of the kitchen fire

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with a water-powered rotisserie.

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He had an enclosed boiler system,

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which meant he had hot and cold water throughout the house.

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It really was the standard of living that we have today

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almost a century and a half ago.

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It was a bit like someone wanting all the latest gadgets today,

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and Armstrong had the money to buy every modern convenience.

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And when he heard his friend Joseph Swan had invented

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an electric light bulb, he had to have that for Cragside, too.

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And so he invented the first-ever domestic hydroelectric generator,

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once again powered by water from the estate.

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This is Lord Armstrong's original hydroelectric system.

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The water comes from the top lakes in the big blue pipe

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into the turbine. Water revolves the turbine

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and turns the shaft

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that then revolves the generators

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and then the electricity is sent up to the house.

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Turbines would have been used for all kinds of things,

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but he connected the dynamo to the water turbine

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to produce hydroelectricity.

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It's the simplicity of turning water into light.

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In time, the house switched to mains power, but visitors were always

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asking if the house was still lit by hydroelectricity.

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In January, 2014, Andrew could finally answer, "Yes,"

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when this wonderful Archimedes screw was installed.

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Once again, power was being generated from water at Cragside.

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It's a modern way of producing hydropower

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which still lights the house,

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which means we can still have our proudest boast -

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Cragside was the first house in the world

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to be lit by hydroelectricity, and it still is.

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The Debden Burn that Armstrong dammed to create his lakes still

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tumbles through the grounds close to the house.

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It's spanned by this beautiful footbridge, the Iron Bridge.

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From here, the path winds up to Cragside's formal gardens.

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This is where Lord and Lady Armstrong worked together

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to transform a series of fields

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overlooking the valley into these three glorious terraces.

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In Armstrong's day, the top terrace would all have been glasshouses.

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Now, only the walls remain,

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enclosing the estate's two fern collections.

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The clock on the tower would have rung at the beginning

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and end of the estate workers' day.

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On the middle terrace is the orchard house,

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home to exotic fruit trees in pots -

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peaches and apricots, lemons and limes.

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Each pot sits on a turntable, which Armstrong designed

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so the trees can revolve to catch as much sunlight as possible.

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At the foot of the garden,

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the lower terrace takes the form of an Italian-style loggia,

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also designed by Armstrong.

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The pool and fountain have been recently restored to the garden

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as they would have been when Lord and Lady Armstrong lived here.

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The entire formal garden is famed for its colourful flower borders.

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Here, the new Archimedes screw is being celebrated

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in a fabulously colourful way.

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Oh, hey, traditional carpet bedding.

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You know, you don't often see it.

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No, this is one of our feature beds - keeping the skills alive,

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cos obviously, this kind of thing is a dying art.

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-Yeah. Do you want a hand trimming, then?

-Yes, if you don't mind.

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I've been doing this...

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The Parks Department. We'll have a go at this, yeah.

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If I work down here...

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Yeah, if you work down there, Christine, that would be fantastic.

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-So, basically, what we want is...

-Just trimming over.

-Yep,

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just keep it nice and flat, keep the edges nice and crisp.

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That would be brilliant.

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Carpet bedding first became popular in the 19th century.

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It was wildly fashionable in the new municipal gardens springing

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up around the country.

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The best plants for carpet bedding are low growing, slow growing,

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and colourful - echeveria and sedum are popular choices.

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When I first started working in Clitheroe's Parks Department,

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one of my first jobs was keeping bedding neat.

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I used to spend hours and hours and hours doing this.

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But it's not often you see such an intricate display.

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How did these carpet beds fit into the overall garden?

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It was the fad, it was the phase, that's what they wanted.

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It's all about celebrating something.

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That's what carpet bedding's about - it's to celebrate,

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in a planting design,

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to celebrate something -

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anniversary, coronation...

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Because it was a showpiece that had to be absolutely pristine

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and perfect.

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And certainly in Armstrong's day, if it wasn't perfect,

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the head gardener would have come down

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-on someone like a tonne of bricks, I would imagine.

-Yeah!

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Every year, Dale and his team put over 20,000 individual plants

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into these beds.

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Each year, they work to a different design,

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taking six weeks to plant it up.

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Do you raise the plants yourself?

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Yes. Yes, we do. It works out a lot cheaper for us to do that.

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All the succulents, all these echeverias

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are all kept behind the scenes, and they go to bed for the winter.

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So that you're maintaining not only planting out,

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-but the actual plant raising and...

-Yes.

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That's nice, actually.

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To buy the plants in for these two beds,

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-you're looking at somewhere in the region of £35,000.

-Yeah.

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And that's why it's not done that often these days, because

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-the vast cost is enormous.

-Yes, it's a huge cost.

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The skills are disappearing from the old parks departments,

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and it's nice that we're trying to keep that alive,

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nice that the National Trust is trying to keep that alive,

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and the skills that they're trying to promote as well.

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Right. Well, I think we could do with a cup of tea, couldn't we?

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I certainly think so, yes, yes.

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-Well, we'll come back to this later.

-Absolutely, I quite agree.

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Brew time.

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Dale and his colleagues are keeping the art of carpet bedding

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alive in the hills above Rothbury.

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But 30 miles from here, on the outskirts of Newcastle,

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sits a garden that's reviving uses for plants dating back 3,000 years.

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This is Dilston Physic Garden.

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The brains behind the garden is Elaine Perry.

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She's not a gardener or a botanist,

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she's comes from a very different branch of science.

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She's a professor based at Newcastle University

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with a particular interest in conditions, like Alzheimer's,

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associated with memory loss.

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It became clear that we certainly weren't going to get a cure

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for Alzheimer's disease just like that.

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And I started to wonder if perhaps the plant world

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had something to offer.

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So we looked back hundreds of years through the archives

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and found that yes, indeed, there were plants

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that were said to improve the memory -

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plants like sage and lemon balm.

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And of course what's really exciting is that when you then take a look

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at that information

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and look at, for example, what chemicals the plants contain

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and what effects they have

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on, you know, laboratory tests,

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you find that all that information that has been passed down

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is actually verified in terms of modern science.

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Elaine needed a garden to grow plants for her experiments,

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and the Dilston Physic Garden was born.

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The first physic gardens were founded in medieval times.

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Elaine's garden follows a tradition stretching back over 500 years

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when, instead of popping pills,

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people would've found remedies in gardens and hedgerows.

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So your doctor was using plants,

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the old ladies in the village were using plants, the grandmothers

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were using plants.

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It was knowledge that was passed down from generations.

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And people, in a way, self medicated. They knew the plants,

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they knew how to prepare the extracts,

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when to take it, how much to take.

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There are over 800 different species of plants grown here now,

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and a team of volunteers helps maintain the garden.

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They use the plants to make a range of products including herbal

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soaps and ointments.

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One of the volunteers, Dennis,

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is already feeling the benefit of what he's learned.

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I have got a problem with oesophageal acid reflux,

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and it's through Elaine that I've learnt about

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the wonderful healing properties of the herbs.

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I'm taking conventional medicine, as well.

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This is not a substitute.

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But it is having a beneficial effect,

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reducing the acidity and the soreness,

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which it can be a very serious medical condition.

0:20:170:20:20

It's estimated that, in some countries, 80% of people

0:20:220:20:25

rely on herbal remedies as their first source of treatment.

0:20:250:20:30

Perhaps in the future, Elaine's work with the plants in this garden

0:20:300:20:33

will help prevent some of the world's most distressing diseases.

0:20:330:20:38

But it's not just plants themselves that have therapeutic powers.

0:20:380:20:42

Many people believe that gardening itself improves memory

0:20:420:20:47

and can even help depression.

0:20:470:20:49

And that's great news for tens of thousands of people

0:20:520:20:55

who spend their time volunteering in the great houses and gardens

0:20:550:20:59

around the UK.

0:20:590:21:00

One of Cragside's volunteers is Jennifer Horner.

0:21:010:21:05

She first caught the plant bug when she was a student,

0:21:050:21:08

but in 1980, she moved from her native Newcastle to Switzerland.

0:21:080:21:13

The house that we lived in in Switzerland was a beautiful house.

0:21:150:21:19

It had quite a big garden around it,

0:21:190:21:22

but it was on top of a hill at about 800 metres,

0:21:220:21:26

which is probably about as high as Cheviot is here.

0:21:260:21:30

And in summer, it was a beautiful alpine meadow, if you allowed it.

0:21:300:21:34

But in winter, it was just a bog

0:21:340:21:36

covered with permafrost or snow.

0:21:360:21:39

Trying to plant anything, it was just a waste of time,

0:21:390:21:42

so it was all very frustrating.

0:21:420:21:45

After 27 years, Jennifer came back home to Northumberland,

0:21:470:21:51

and at last, she could make her dream come true

0:21:510:21:54

and have a proper garden.

0:21:540:21:55

I would go to a nursery or into friends' gardens

0:21:570:22:00

and just look at plants.

0:22:000:22:02

I would look at plants every day if I had the chance.

0:22:020:22:04

I look at the plants and say, "Do I like you?"

0:22:040:22:07

And if I like the plant, would it work in my garden?

0:22:070:22:10

And if it did, then I would go and search for that particular plant.

0:22:100:22:14

I liked alpines, so I had to collect alpines.

0:22:140:22:17

And I like fuchsias, so I've got lots of different fuchsias.

0:22:170:22:20

And then the tree was shady, so I thought, "Well, ferns will go there."

0:22:200:22:26

And so I started collecting ferns to put different shapes and sizes

0:22:260:22:30

and colours to plant under the tree.

0:22:300:22:32

There's probably about 200 different plants in the garden,

0:22:320:22:36

that was at the last count.

0:22:360:22:37

And I know there are at least 90 pots,

0:22:370:22:40

cos my husband has to water them.

0:22:400:22:43

But even 200 plants weren't enough for Jennifer - she wanted more!

0:22:440:22:49

It was just one day I was visiting Cragside with a friend

0:22:490:22:52

and one of the gardeners was working there, and I went up to her

0:22:520:22:55

and I said, "Do you have volunteers in the garden?"

0:22:550:22:58

And she kind of went, "Oh, yes!"

0:22:580:23:00

And that was it. It's just fantastic

0:23:000:23:03

because I've now got two gardens.

0:23:030:23:05

I've got my garden at home

0:23:050:23:07

and then I can enjoy the bigger garden at Cragside.

0:23:070:23:10

It's a bit like a dream come true.

0:23:100:23:13

It's the icing on the cake to my retirement.

0:23:130:23:16

At Cragside, Jennifer's taken on a project of her own - employing

0:23:180:23:23

her love of ferns in reviving the two ferneries in the formal garden.

0:23:230:23:27

Ferns were the huge craze with Victorians.

0:23:320:23:36

You could buy special glass cabinets to show them off,

0:23:360:23:38

while the rich could build grottos to house their collections.

0:23:380:23:43

The basic structure of the fern hasn't evolved much

0:23:440:23:47

for over 140 million years -

0:23:470:23:49

they're one of nature's greatest success stories.

0:23:490:23:52

Ferns don't only grow well in shady areas.

0:23:530:23:56

There's a fern for most situations, including sunny spots.

0:23:560:24:00

In Armstrong's time, there were two ferneries at Cragside.

0:24:010:24:05

But as ferns fell out of fashion, so they fell into disrepair.

0:24:050:24:10

I've arranged to meet Jennifer in one of them,

0:24:110:24:14

where she's been replanting.

0:24:140:24:16

-Hi, Jennifer.

-Hiya.

0:24:160:24:17

-Nice to see you.

-And you. What are you doing?

0:24:170:24:21

I'm planting this fern in this crevice here.

0:24:210:24:23

It's a bare spot in the fernery.

0:24:230:24:25

-It'll look lovely in there.

-Yeah, I think it will.

0:24:250:24:27

How long have you known about Cragside?

0:24:270:24:30

Well, Cragside itself I've known about since about the 1980s,

0:24:300:24:35

but I'd heard of Armstrong when I was a child.

0:24:350:24:37

How did you get involved with the ferns, then?

0:24:370:24:39

-I got involved with the ferns because it was a bit neglected.

-OK.

0:24:390:24:43

And it was a bid sad.

0:24:430:24:45

And my garden at home has an area where the only thing that we grow are

0:24:450:24:49

ferns, so I just started collecting loads and loads of different ferns,

0:24:490:24:52

-and I knew about the ferns that could grow in different places.

-Mm.

0:24:520:24:56

So I just gradually sort of winkled my way in, I suppose.

0:24:560:25:00

Excellent. And what fascinates you about the place?

0:25:000:25:03

Cragside is... Well, one of the visitors came

0:25:030:25:07

by me the other day and they said,

0:25:070:25:08

"This is the most amazing place,

0:25:080:25:11

"it's full of corners. And round every corner,

0:25:110:25:15

"is something different." And it's true.

0:25:150:25:17

-You could just come to Cragside and visit the garden.

-Mm.

0:25:170:25:20

And that's got lots of corners with lots of different things.

0:25:200:25:23

Or you go into the estate, drive around

0:25:230:25:26

and there's all sorts of amazing walks

0:25:260:25:29

and drives and lakes.

0:25:290:25:30

And then you go in the house and, well, it's full

0:25:300:25:33

of Armstrong's amazing inventions.

0:25:330:25:36

So, a really fascinating man.

0:25:360:25:38

-Chuck that last bit off.

-Yeah, chuck it in.

0:25:380:25:41

-And then...

-It needs a bit of water, doesn't it?

-It does.

0:25:410:25:45

-Well, we can get that. So let's go and get some more plants.

-Okey-doke.

0:25:450:25:49

Jennifer's one of a team of ten volunteers working in the garden

0:25:550:25:59

at Cragside.

0:25:590:26:00

But whether volunteer or full-time staff, it's clear that everyone

0:26:000:26:04

associated with the garden really loves this very special place.

0:26:040:26:09

What surprises me about this garden is how it oozes history.

0:26:110:26:17

-You know, I mean, horticultural history...

-Yes.

0:26:170:26:20

-..you were commenting on earlier.

-Yes, absolutely.

0:26:200:26:22

The history goes all the way back through from 1870,

0:26:220:26:26

just carrying that theme on, obviously.

0:26:260:26:28

Lady Armstrong was the horticulturalist.

0:26:280:26:31

Armstrong was the man who put this kind of thing in,

0:26:310:26:34

these giant lumps of stone.

0:26:340:26:35

These metal frames, that was his thing, the engineering side of it.

0:26:350:26:39

Lady Armstrong was the gardener, basically.

0:26:390:26:41

But these aren't just stanchions, are they?

0:26:410:26:44

No, no, these are drain pipes as well, dual purpose.

0:26:440:26:46

Detriment to the building because they freeze in winter

0:26:460:26:49

and blow the building,

0:26:490:26:50

but, yeah, there's sort of gutters along the top and it all runs down

0:26:500:26:53

into these, runs down underneath and then

0:26:530:26:56

the hollow underneath here, the big tunnel runs out,

0:26:560:26:59

right the way out into the parkland.

0:26:590:27:00

And it just takes the water away from this terrace,

0:27:000:27:03

-takes the water away from the border behind.

-Right.

0:27:030:27:06

It was all thought out long before the pretty bits went in.

0:27:060:27:10

But, Jennifer, you've been saying how fascinated you are

0:27:100:27:13

with all the inventions he got up to.

0:27:130:27:16

Well, yes, I have been fascinated, especially

0:27:160:27:18

when I first learned about Cragside and visited the house

0:27:180:27:21

and saw all the amazing things inside of the house.

0:27:210:27:25

The equipment for the kitchen and...the lift!

0:27:250:27:29

Can you imagine working in a house in those days and having a lift...

0:27:290:27:32

-I know!

-..to get up and down stairs with?

0:27:320:27:34

And the fact that the house was one of the first to be electrified.

0:27:340:27:38

And that's given me some food for thought.

0:27:380:27:41

In every wonderful garden I've visited during my balloon tour,

0:27:450:27:49

I've left behind a little thank you.

0:27:490:27:51

For my gift to Cragside,

0:27:510:27:53

I'm thinking something with an industrial edge.

0:27:530:27:56

Stephen Lunn is a local blacksmith turned artist,

0:27:560:28:00

and he knows the garden well.

0:28:000:28:02

When my children were growing up, that was...

0:28:040:28:06

Our weekend event was to go to Cragside.

0:28:060:28:09

We're a bit bad because we didn't go round the house.

0:28:090:28:11

We actually adored the trees and the grounds.

0:28:110:28:14

And I cannot believe how them trees just grow so well.

0:28:140:28:18

It's inspired myself, actually, to plant my own tree arboretum.

0:28:180:28:23

And some of my trees are from seeds from Cragside itself.

0:28:230:28:27

It's not just Cragside's trees that's inspired him.

0:28:270:28:32

Lord Armstrong was an inventor and I feel I'm an inventor as well.

0:28:320:28:36

I invent designs.

0:28:360:28:37

So I feel quite an affinity to Lord Armstrong and his grounds and garden.

0:28:370:28:42

Except mine's very small scale

0:28:420:28:44

and his was absolutely grand, amazing scale.

0:28:440:28:48

Stephen's love of Cragside and his admiration for Lord Armstrong's

0:28:570:29:01

inventiveness make him the perfect person to create something

0:29:010:29:05

distinctive to donate to the garden as a souvenir of my visit.

0:29:050:29:09

I'm going to leave the actual design up to him, but whatever it is,

0:29:130:29:17

I'm sure it'll be worthy of Cragside and its first owner.

0:29:170:29:21

Meanwhile, I'm getting back in my trusty basket

0:29:260:29:30

and heading off on the next stage of my Northumberland adventure.

0:29:300:29:33

About 40 miles north of Cragside, very close to the Scottish border,

0:29:360:29:41

sits Holy Island. The island is cut off twice a day by the North Sea.

0:29:410:29:46

The timing has to be right to visit, but when you do,

0:29:460:29:49

you see a rather spectacular garden

0:29:490:29:52

and a fascinating castle.

0:29:520:29:53

But I'm there to see it's beautiful, tiny, little special garden.

0:29:530:29:59

This is the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

0:30:060:30:09

Just three miles long by a mile and a half wide,

0:30:090:30:12

the island was first settled by monks in 635.

0:30:120:30:16

Nowadays, over 600,00 visitors a year come to the island,

0:30:160:30:21

over the causeway or by boat.

0:30:210:30:23

They visit for bird-watching or to enjoy the beauty of the landscape.

0:30:230:30:28

But I'm here to visit the castle

0:30:280:30:30

and find out more about its special little garden.

0:30:300:30:34

Lindisfarne Castle dates back to 1550.

0:30:430:30:47

In 1902, the owner of Country Life magazine, Edward Hudson, asked his

0:30:470:30:52

friend, the architect Edwin Lutyens, to transform it into a holiday home.

0:30:520:30:57

Lutyens often worked with self-taught garden designer

0:30:590:31:02

Gertrude Jekyll.

0:31:020:31:03

He'd designed her house, Munstead Wood,

0:31:030:31:06

and they were great friends as well as collaborators.

0:31:060:31:09

But when they came to work together on Lindisfarne,

0:31:110:31:14

the costs for renovating the castle itself spiralled.

0:31:140:31:17

The plans to surround it with an ambitious garden of lakes

0:31:180:31:21

and parkland were scaled back.

0:31:210:31:23

Lutyens and Jekyll ended up making a garden in what had been

0:31:250:31:29

the castle's vegetable plot.

0:31:290:31:31

But in this case, small really is beautiful.

0:31:310:31:35

I've arranged to meet the lucky person

0:31:370:31:39

who's in charge of looking after this tiny gem.

0:31:390:31:42

Her name is Carol McLeod.

0:31:420:31:45

-Hi, Carol.

-Hi, Christine.

-Nice to meet you.

-And you.

0:31:480:31:51

-God, you've got a lovely job here, haven't you?

-I have, thank you.

0:31:510:31:54

So, what do you know about Lutyens and Jekyll

0:31:540:31:57

and this garden?

0:31:570:31:58

Lutyens and Jekyll visited the castle,

0:31:580:32:01

they were invited by Hudson,

0:32:010:32:03

who was the owner of Country Life magazine.

0:32:030:32:06

And Jekyll had written articles for Country Life magazine.

0:32:060:32:10

So, did they work together in this garden?

0:32:100:32:13

They did work together. Lutyens designed the paths and the beds.

0:32:130:32:16

-Right.

-He also reduced the wall.

-OK.

0:32:160:32:19

He moved the gate from the north wall,

0:32:190:32:22

so that you could come across the field.

0:32:220:32:24

And then Jekyll, her magic planting touches.

0:32:240:32:27

She did.

0:32:270:32:28

Jekyll had studied at art school

0:32:280:32:30

and used sweeps of colour like brushstrokes in her planting plans.

0:32:300:32:35

Texture was also incredibly important to her,

0:32:390:32:42

and she often used plants like this stachys.

0:32:420:32:45

Here, it sits in perfect harmony against the grey of the pathways

0:32:450:32:49

Lutyens designed.

0:32:490:32:51

How on earth did you end up working somewhere as beautiful as this?

0:32:540:32:58

It's amazing, isn't it?

0:32:580:32:59

-Beautiful here.

-It's beau...! I mean, how did you end up here?

0:32:590:33:02

I came here from Hertfordshire, where I had been working,

0:33:020:33:06

and I wanted to come back to the area.

0:33:060:33:09

I couldn't find a job

0:33:090:33:11

and I volunteered in the garden.

0:33:110:33:15

-From there, I've landed this job.

-Wow!

0:33:150:33:17

And did you have any gardening experience before that?

0:33:170:33:20

No, just gardening at home.

0:33:200:33:22

I trained as a photographer. My background there was portraits

0:33:220:33:26

of maternity and newborns.

0:33:260:33:28

-Wow!

-So I had to learn a lot of patience working

0:33:280:33:32

with newborn babies, and it comes in handy for this job.

0:33:320:33:35

I can say, that now makes a tremendous amount of sense.

0:33:350:33:39

Caring, sensitive, loving,

0:33:390:33:43

capturing moments.

0:33:430:33:44

-And that's exactly what you do in this garden.

-That's right.

0:33:440:33:47

This can't be an easy site to garden, can it?

0:33:470:33:49

-What are the challenges?

-Obviously, being on an island

0:33:490:33:53

and surrounded by the North Sea,

0:33:530:33:55

the wind can be a major challenge on this garden.

0:33:550:33:58

The plants come in when they are very, very young.

0:33:580:34:01

They're hardened off so they can withstand the winds when they come

0:34:010:34:05

into the garden when they're very young seedlings.

0:34:050:34:08

And from there, they should be strong enough to grow in these conditions.

0:34:080:34:13

Have you got any plans to move this garden on?

0:34:200:34:22

No, we stick to the Jekyll plan.

0:34:220:34:25

This was Jekyll's creation and all we're doing is keeping

0:34:250:34:28

her plants as they were and how she created them in her mind.

0:34:280:34:32

Cos she never ever saw the garden planted,

0:34:320:34:34

-so...

-Right!

-It's lovely for people to see

0:34:340:34:38

what she had in her mind.

0:34:380:34:41

So how come Jekyll never saw it planted up?

0:34:410:34:44

Jekyll was quite elderly when she visited here, and she only came once.

0:34:440:34:48

She lived down in Surrey, so it was quite a long way for her to come.

0:34:480:34:51

I'll say, in them days.

0:34:510:34:53

But what does this garden and your role mean to you now?

0:34:530:34:58

It's wonderful to create the garden every year.

0:34:580:35:01

There's always lots of planning involved.

0:35:010:35:03

And it gives great pleasure when people come in

0:35:030:35:05

and are just stunned by the vibrancy of the colours of the plants.

0:35:050:35:09

-It's all here...

-That's right.

-..in a nice little envelope,

0:35:090:35:12

sitting on Holy Island.

0:35:120:35:14

-Couldn't be nicer, could it?

-Not on a day like today.

0:35:140:35:17

Now, it has to be said that not all of Jekyll's planting schemes

0:35:310:35:35

went so well to plan.

0:35:350:35:36

Back at the castle, I'm meeting Nick Lewis,

0:35:360:35:39

the curator of the building, who's going to show me

0:35:390:35:41

how even a renowned plantswoman sometimes got things wrong.

0:35:410:35:45

-I believe you're having problems with this, Nick.

-Yeah,

0:35:470:35:50

this is red valerian, which was part of the planting scheme

0:35:500:35:53

carried out by Gertrude Jekyll.

0:35:530:35:55

And it can cause the crag to become unstable.

0:35:550:35:58

Right. But how on earth was it planted?

0:35:580:36:00

She was not able to reach some places, so she used a shotgun

0:36:000:36:03

and loaded it with seeds

0:36:030:36:05

-and marched around...

-Whoof!

0:36:050:36:08

-..blazing away, yeah.

-Wow!

0:36:080:36:10

She also used a young boy in a wicker basket, who she dangled off

0:36:100:36:14

the batteries here to the more hard to reach places.

0:36:140:36:17

But this red valerian in particular is...

0:36:170:36:20

has caused us some problems recently.

0:36:200:36:21

And when we've been doing surveys of the natural rock crag,

0:36:210:36:24

-which is this thing...

-Yeah.

0:36:240:36:25

..the roots are burrowing their way down into natural crevices...

0:36:250:36:29

-And busting it.

-..as they're opening up, yeah, with frost and ice.

-Yeah.

0:36:290:36:32

And we are getting quite substantial areas

0:36:320:36:35

where the rock is unstable.

0:36:350:36:36

It is causing us a lot of concern.

0:36:360:36:39

So, how do you deal with it?

0:36:390:36:40

Because we're in a particularly significant part of the world -

0:36:400:36:45

the area we're standing in around the castle is Grade II listed park -

0:36:450:36:48

-we have contractors who have sailed down...

-OK.

-..and they treat

0:36:480:36:51

-individual plants with just an off-the-shelf weed killer.

-Right.

0:36:510:36:55

And that happens every sort of four or five years.

0:36:550:36:57

And it is a way of keeping down growth

0:36:570:36:59

so it allows this to stay as a feature

0:36:590:37:01

-and be true to what Gertrude intended.

-Yeah.

0:37:010:37:03

Even though it is causing some problem, we try to balance the two.

0:37:030:37:06

Shooting seeds into the rock was a bit eccentric.

0:37:070:37:11

But there's now a technique for spreading seeds that's not

0:37:110:37:14

a million miles away from Jekyll's shotgun method.

0:37:140:37:17

It's called hydroseeding.

0:37:190:37:21

A mixture of earth and seeds is sprayed onto steep slopes,

0:37:210:37:24

like this one.

0:37:240:37:25

It's really come into its own on a site close to Newcastle.

0:37:250:37:29

This amazing woman is Northumberlandia.

0:37:350:37:38

In 2010, the owners of this opencast coal mine

0:37:420:37:46

commissioned landscape architect Charles Jencks to design

0:37:460:37:49

a public park, making use of the earth dug out to create the mine.

0:37:490:37:53

She's the biggest woman in the world - seven times

0:37:580:38:01

the size of a football pitch!

0:38:010:38:03

She's now looked after by the Land Trust

0:38:030:38:05

and the Northumberland Wildlife Trust.

0:38:050:38:08

And Dan is one of their wildlife rangers.

0:38:100:38:12

Northumberlandia is an art park, it's a reclining human figure,

0:38:140:38:18

it's a lady lying on her back

0:38:180:38:20

and pointing one way and offering an open hand of friendship and welcome

0:38:200:38:24

with the left hand.

0:38:240:38:25

The lady was created with spoil from the surface mine.

0:38:250:38:28

There's a million and a half tonnes that have gone into the land form.

0:38:280:38:31

And it was created with 900 millimetre high stone blocks.

0:38:310:38:35

And then covered with top soil to create the gradient and the slopes.

0:38:350:38:39

And then blasted with grass seed and some wild flowers as well.

0:38:390:38:43

The grassy banks aren't the only feature that Dan

0:38:470:38:50

and his team look after.

0:38:500:38:51

Northumberlandia is surrounded by water and they need to keep these

0:38:510:38:55

plants in check.

0:38:550:38:57

They're called typha - or more commonly, bull rushes.

0:38:570:39:00

Without attention, they can be very invasive.

0:39:000:39:03

The idea with these ponds around the lady is

0:39:070:39:09

that they're reflection ponds, so on a day like today,

0:39:090:39:12

you see the reflection of the land form in the ponds.

0:39:120:39:14

And pond-edge vegetation is good for wildlife,

0:39:140:39:17

but we need to stop it from spoiling the definition of the pond edges,

0:39:170:39:20

so we'll just take a little bit of it out today

0:39:200:39:23

and we'll allow some of it to continue to grow

0:39:230:39:25

to provide home for invertebrates and other wildlife.

0:39:250:39:28

Northumberlandia hasn't just regenerated the countryside,

0:39:300:39:34

she's changed the lives of some people who work here.

0:39:340:39:37

Wayne started here as a volunteer and is now an assistant ranger.

0:39:370:39:41

I'm the site warden and I meet and greet the visitors

0:39:430:39:46

and give them information about the site

0:39:460:39:48

and about Northumberlandia,

0:39:480:39:50

check that everything's OK

0:39:500:39:52

and that it's clean and tidy for visitors.

0:39:520:39:54

I came here as a volunteer,

0:39:540:39:57

but ended up with a full-time job.

0:39:570:39:59

Just meeting different people every day, it's just fantastic.

0:39:590:40:04

As well as maintaining the ponds,

0:40:040:40:06

the whole site is maintained with the idea of keeping nature

0:40:060:40:10

in balance.

0:40:100:40:11

We don't carry out a lot of manicuring kind of work

0:40:120:40:15

and cutting grass.

0:40:150:40:16

The grass on the lady is cut once a year, in July, and the surrounding

0:40:160:40:19

areas we manage as a meadow,

0:40:190:40:21

so that's cut later in the season, kind of middle of August.

0:40:210:40:24

So again, you get invertebrates on the wild flowers

0:40:240:40:27

and then bird species associated with it,

0:40:270:40:29

and that kind of keeps the interest,

0:40:290:40:30

the wildlife interest, of the site going.

0:40:300:40:32

It's not only animals and birds that enjoy the site.

0:40:330:40:36

It's estimated that in 2012, the year she opened, 100,000 people

0:40:360:40:43

came to walk on Northumberlandia and enjoy these spectacular views.

0:40:430:40:49

The vast majority of visitors are absolutely astounded by the place,

0:40:490:40:52

especially when you see the land form for the first time

0:40:520:40:54

and kind of have a walk round it. It's got its own atmosphere.

0:40:540:40:57

It's a really unique place.

0:40:570:40:59

And most people seem to appreciate that really well.

0:40:590:41:01

I'm finishing my trip to Northumberland at Cragside.

0:41:040:41:07

It's a unique place with links to the industry of the North East,

0:41:070:41:11

created by Victorian engineering genius Lord Armstrong.

0:41:110:41:15

I want to leave a souvenir of my visit with the fantastic

0:41:180:41:22

people who look after this place.

0:41:220:41:24

Estate workers and their friends and family have

0:41:240:41:27

gathered in the formal garden to see the artwork I've had made,

0:41:270:41:31

by the artist and blacksmith Stephen Lunn to celebrate Cragside.

0:41:310:41:36

I've asked Jennifer, who told me about her volunteering here,

0:41:360:41:39

to accept it on behalf of them all.

0:41:390:41:42

Do you know what's been really nice about today?

0:41:420:41:46

Is how much Armstrong is alive and kicking in this garden.

0:41:460:41:52

And as a little gesture, as a tribute, just to show

0:41:520:41:55

the influence this man has had on gardens and the county,

0:41:550:42:00

we thought that we might like to leave you

0:42:000:42:03

just a little tribute to the genius of the man.

0:42:030:42:10

Now...

0:42:100:42:11

Created by a local blacksmith.

0:42:150:42:17

And the curves are to represent the turbines.

0:42:170:42:24

The swish and flow of water.

0:42:240:42:27

-And the sparks of hydroelectricity.

-Wow.

0:42:270:42:30

So, Armstrong alive and kicking,

0:42:300:42:33

sitting amongst his countryside,

0:42:330:42:36

in his garden. So, I hope for many, many years to come,

0:42:360:42:39

you'll look at this and remember a truly amazing bloke.

0:42:390:42:44

So, what do you think, Jen?

0:42:480:42:49

I think it's absolutely amazing.

0:42:490:42:51

Splendid, I've had a lovely day, so thank you all very much.

0:42:510:42:55

This work of craftsmanship will stay here in the formal garden,

0:42:590:43:02

a great reminder of a man who dreamed of energy

0:43:020:43:05

generated from water.

0:43:050:43:07

It's time for me to leave Northumberland,

0:43:090:43:12

but I'm taking away with me

0:43:120:43:13

fabulous memories of people who've had a dream and made it come true.

0:43:130:43:18

They've created tiny gardens and huge landscapes.

0:43:180:43:22

They've found medicine in plants and power in water.

0:43:220:43:25

And all in a part of the country with views as spectacular

0:43:270:43:31

as its achievements.

0:43:310:43:33

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