Cragend Farm Hydraulic Silo
Hydraulic silo building 45 metres east of Cragend Farmhouse, Rothbury, NE65 7XN
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1153196
- Date first listed:
- 25-Aug-1987
- List Entry Name:
- Cragend Farm Hydraulic Silo
- Statutory Address:
- Hydraulic silo building 45 metres east of Cragend Farmhouse, Rothbury, NE65 7XN
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2005-07-13
- Reference:
- IOE01/14208/17
- Rights:
- © Mr David Robson. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1153196
- Date first listed:
- 25-Aug-1987
- List Entry Name:
- Cragend Farm Hydraulic Silo
- Statutory Address 1:
- Hydraulic silo building 45 metres east of Cragend Farmhouse, Rothbury, NE65 7XN
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Hydraulic silo building 45 metres east of Cragend Farmhouse, Rothbury, NE65 7XN
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Northumberland (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Rothbury
- National Grid Reference:
- NU 08706 00882
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21 August 2023 to amend details in the description
NU 00 SE
17/10
CARTINGTON
CRAGEND
Hydraulic silo building 45 metres east of Cragend Farmhouse
(Formerly listed as Hydraulic silo building 70 metres east of Cragend Farmhouse)
II*
An experimental hydraulic silo built between August 1884 and January 1887, by Lord Armstrong. Snecked stone with tooled-and-margined dressings; Welsh slate roof to centre, original heavy corrugated iron on side parts and C20 asbestos sheets on loading bay. Linear plan: rectangular silage bay on each side of taller cross-gabled centre.
North elevation. Gabled centre has boarded double doors with similar pitching doors above, both in chamfered surrounds; lower side parts have slit vents. To right, below slit vents is pent roof of loading bay, entered at lower level by segmental arch holding boarded double doors on right return. Side parts have barrel roof.
Interior; centre part has single-cylinder hydraulic engine in basement (not seen as access stair is unsafe); turbine on entrance level and chopping machine on first floor, now removed. Flanking silage bays are deep chambers, rendered internally, with the floor area of each containing 18 large stone drums. Transverse steel girders below roof; steel arched roof trusses.
The hydraulic silo is said to have been based on a French original seen by Lord Armstrong. Grass was forked in through the pitching door to the chopping machine powered by the turbine below, which was operated by water pumped up from the hydraulic engine; the chopped grass was then manually loaded into the silage bays; when these were full it was compacted beneath the stone drums, which had been raised to the transverse girders by hydraulic power. Hoists for lifting silage (and men) from the bays were also hydraulically operated; the silage was then dropped down a chute from the entrance door into the low-level loading bay, and removed.
The process was not very efficient in terms of manpower required, and was soon abandoned due to problems of gas emanation; the power source was lost when Blackburn Lake was drained c.1930.
Listing NGR: NU0870600882
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 236347
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Other
Newcastle Evening Chronicle 19th of January 1887
Saturday 10th of November 1888 Newcastle Courant
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 04-Jun-2026 at 05:36:35.
Download a full scale map (PDF)© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900.© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2026. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
End of official list entry