William George Armstrong, who later became Lord Armstrong of Cragside, married Margaret Ramshaw in 1835 and they came to live in a house he had built in Jesmond Dene. Lord Armstrong bought more of the surrounding land and by 1862 he owned the rest of the valley. One of his many interests was landscape gardening and together with his wife Margaret he landscaped the gardens building the waterfall, a grotto and a network of footpaths and bridges. They introduced exotic plants and trees such as cedars, junipers, Californian Redwoods and the rhododendron.
In 1883 Lord Armstrong presented Jesmond Dene to the citizens of Newcastle upon Tyne as a public park to be maintained as an oasis of natural beauty within an urban setting. It was officially opened to the public by the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1884.
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