In this undertaking he was backed by the wealth of several prominent Newcastle citizens, who believed in the future of the new inventions—­Messrs. Addison Potter, George Cruddas, Armourer Donkin, and Richard Lambert.  At that time Elswick was a pretty country village some distance outside of Newcastle, and the walk along the riverside between the two places was a favourite one with the people of the town.  In midstream there was an island, where stood a little inn called the “Countess of Coventry”; and on the island various sports were often held, including horse-racing.

The price of the land for the new shops, which were soon built on the green slopes above the Tyne, was paid to Mr. Hodgson Hind and Mr. Richard Grainger; the latter of whom had intended, could he have carried out his plans for the rebuilding of Newcastle, not to stop until he made Elswick Hall the centre of the town.

Until the new shops were ready to begin work, some of Mr. Armstrong’s hydraulic cranes were made by Mr. Watson at his works in the High Bridge.

All the summer of 1847, the building went briskly on; and in the autumn work was started.  At first Mr. Armstrong had an office in Hood Street, as he was superintending his machinery construction in High Bridge, as well as the building operations at Elswick.  On some of the early notepaper of the firm there is, as the heading, a picture of Elswick as it was then, showing the first shops, the little square building in which were the offices, the green banks sloping down to the waterside, and the island in the middle of the shallow stream, while the chimneys and smoke of Newcastle are indicated in the remote background.  Along the riverside was the public footpath.

The first work done in the new shops was the making of Crane No. 6; and amongst other early orders was one from the Newcastle Chronicle, for hydraulic machinery to drive the printing press.  The new machinery rapidly grew in favour; and orders from mines, docks and railways poured in to the Elswick firm, which soon extended its works.

In 1854, when the Crimean War broke out, Mr. Armstrong was requested to devise some submarine mines which would clear the harbour of Sebastopol of the Russian war-ships which had been sent there.  He did so, but the machinery was never used.

At the same time, in his leisure moments, he turned his attention to the question of artillery.  The guns in use at that time were very little better than those which had been used during the Napoleonic wars; and Mr. Armstrong devised a new one, which was made at his workshops.  It was a 3-pounder, complete with gun-carriage and mountings, and is still to be seen at Elswick.