If the British Army learnt anything from the Crimean campaign of 1853-56, it was that they needed major upgrades in the artillery department. The field guns were too difficult to manoeuvre; and lighter, more mobile units were required. William Armstrong, with his nice new engineering works at Elswick, decided that it’d be fun to get involved in the post-war clamour for new weaponry – so he became involved in gun development in a rather big way. To cut a long story short, Armstrong developed and manufactured a highly efficient and effective breech-loading field gun (which fired shells rather than balls) that everyone was really rather pleased with. He ended up being knighted for his work in 1859, after he’d surrendered the patent for the gun to the British government, rather than profiting personally from its design.
At the time Armstrong lived in his mansion, Jesmond Dean, overlooking Jesmond Vale. And, astonishing as it may sound to us today, during the period in which he was perfecting his new invention he would regularly conduct field trials near his home. In a letter to the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel he stated: “Firing practice takes place between the peaceful hours of 3 and 5 when people are in bed and out of harm’s way. The gun is placed in the field where the dungheap was and I fire across the valley against a vertical bank at a distance of 435 yards.” Indeed, experimental guns were constantly being tested in all sorts of places, not just Jesmond Vale. The moorlands around Allenheads were regularly peppered with shell-fire, as were stretches of the coastline. On many occasions it must have seemed to unsuspecting locals that some foreign invasion was afoot.
What residents there were who were living in and around Jesmond at the time may, however, have been used to Armstrong’s earth-shattering shenanigans. As early as 1854, our man had been asked by the War Office to design underwater mines to help dislodge the wrecks of Russian ships that were blocking the entrance to Sebastopol Harbour. Armstrong came up with a device consisting of a wrought-iron cylinder loaded with guncotton (a kind of propellant), which he tested in the fields of Jesmond in front of an invited audience. “It was a very pleasant function and greatly enjoyed by all the guests,” he boasted, continuing, “the mines, planted in different parts of the field, exploded in the most exhilarating manner, and after tea had been served out, the party separated, delighted with the afternoon’s entertainment.” As it happened, this particular idea was never taken forward by the authorities.
