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Historic Tours 2021 WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US IN OUR CELEBRATION OF 10 YEARS HERE AT CRAGEND. Booking open now for our historic tours of the Farm, with information and tales aplenty about our links ot Cragside and  Lord William Armstrong. Our Grade II* Listed Silo and outbuildings are full of history and intrigue. Bookings taken direct via our website using our contact page ...

Restoration in 2019 to the Grade II* listed Silo at Cragend Grange made it possible for us  to submit an entry  to the Historic Houses competition in association with Sothebys for an award. We are very pleased that  our efforts where acknowledged, and despite not winning the top award we received a letter from them stating:  We all found it absolutely fascinating Lou - than ...

Celebrate 2021 We are celebrating a Decade of being part of Cragend Farm history this year and hope to celebrate with many photos and updates on our progress. Watch this space! ...

Just a short note to say that our dear friend and neighbour Margaret Straughan passed away on 31st December New Years Eve 2020 after a brave battle with cancer. She has been a major part of our lives since we bought Cragend Farm in 2010 and was a vital part of piecing together the history of the farm. She was a kind and jolly neighbour, sharing recipes and thoughts for the da ...

Corona Virus News: It was announced last night by our Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the United Kingdom has to cease all but essential travel due to the Corona Virus. Although we are not able to accommodate our guests at this time we are aiming to put on the Blog as much information about what is going on at Cragend Farm, for those who were coming to see us this year. I ...

On Friday 28th February after several weeks of very bad weather and Storm Ciara coming through, we were hit by Storm Dennis which managed to tear our wooden Victorian barn to pieces. The wind speeds were recorded in excess of 60 mph locally and this part of the Coquet Valley is very exposed. We are devastated as the barn housed wood for our biomass boiler, farm items such a ...

It was with huge pleasure that we hosted a Heritage Open Day at Cragend Farm in September 2019, as we had new repair and restoration work to reveal in our Grade II* listed building The Cragend Silo, as well as a ‘walk & talk tour’ about how the farm and its machinery are linked to Cragside, a National Trust property in Northumberland. The tour was well attended and we were ...

Merry Christmas! 2019 has been an amazing year at Cragend Farm. Our holiday accommodation business is up and running and we now have a flock of Cheviot sheep and a small herd of Rare Breed Whitebred Shorthorn cattle to look after as well as our chickens, peacocks and dogs. Our new arrival, Dax, a Border Collie dog, is now 1 year old, and training to be our trusty sheep do ...

The Renwick & Geddes family #team doing some Historic Buildings #volunteer work @cragend @Historic_Houses @JohnDeere  helping us to remove the RSJ from the Silo. It had been used to secure the turbine with straps whilst we repaired the floors. ...

Tree Dedication: The Storer family have lived in the Coquet Valley for over 300 years, and to celebrate this Rob and Helen Storer decided to dedicate a tree to the family past and present as part of our Scots Pine Stand at Cragend Farm. The trees are positioned on a high point on Cragend Farm. The tree furthest east has been dedicated to William Storer and all his forebears. ...

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to your fantastic farm on the Historic Houses tour on Tuesday. We both agree that it was the most interesting HHA visit we have ever done - and we have done many over the years! We had no idea of the extent of the Armstrong connection or what you have there, having visited Cragside on so many occasions in the past 50 years or so. And indeed looked down on the farm from the walks at Cragend quite recently. We particularly enjoyed ascending and descending the ladders to look at the hydraulic equipment and get an idea of how it all functioned, the beautiful and unusual buildings which had housed the cattle, and were intrigued by the contents of your "underground " loo! Peacocks and chicks, hens and a beautiful pet lamb added to the feel of the farm.

Shaun & Lou Renwick are keen to harness the farm's natural resources, using wood to heat their water, to cook with on a wood burning range, and to heat the houses on the Farm. Even if your house is not equipped to totally run on wood there are things you can do to make sure you are using the best quality wood for your fires.

Why use Seasoned Wood?

Seasoned wood is a definition for 'wood drying'. About 5% of the energy of the log is wasted through evaporation and heating the water vapour of damp logs.

Moisture effects the burning process with unburnt hydrocarbons going up the chimney, which can in time create 'sooting' in the chimney, with the possibility of a chimney fire, all of which requires specialist sweeping.

Drying the wood before burning reduces moisture content in the wood before it is used for burning,

Air drying is the most traditional method, and it takes time. usually over and above 2 years! The fire will use less energy to burn the log if the water content is below 20%. Therefore is can give OUT more energy in the form of heat!

Cragend Farm endeavours to provide their customers with the best seasoned wood possible.

if you would like further information on the process of burning wood please contact us and we will be happy to help.

Why seasoned wood?

Thank you so much Lou and Shaun for a great holiday break on your farm at Cragend last week. East Cottage was a super place to stay. Very comfortable accommodation with everything we needed for self-catering and situated next to the beautiful Cragside National Trust gardens. It was super for our dog with fields to walk across as well as a secure fenced place for her to run off lead! Such interesting history too about the farm and how you have restored the buildings, the Victorian silo and so much else of the past farming life at Cragend. We look forward to returning! J&M Nottingham.

Award Winning Accommodation