Castle Drogo
Encyclopedia
Drewsteignton
Drewsteignton is a village and civil parish within the administrative area of West Devon, England, also lying within the Dartmoor National Park. It is located in the Teign valley, west of Exeter and south east of Okehampton...
, Devon, England. It was built in the 1910s and 1920s for Julius Drewe
Julius Drewe
Julius Charles Hendicott Drewe was an English businessman, retailer and entrepreneur, known for being the creator of the successful Home and Colonial Stores, as well as for the building of Castle Drogo in Devon as his family's country home.-Early life and career:Julius Charles Hendicott Drew...
(businessman and founder of the Home and Colonial Stores) to designs by architect Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
, and is a Grade I listed building. Castle Drogo was the last castle to be built in England, and probably the last private house in the country to be built entirely of granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
.
Background
Julius Drewe'sJulius Drewe
Julius Charles Hendicott Drewe was an English businessman, retailer and entrepreneur, known for being the creator of the successful Home and Colonial Stores, as well as for the building of Castle Drogo in Devon as his family's country home.-Early life and career:Julius Charles Hendicott Drew...
first cousin was Richard Peek, the rector of Drewsteignton
Drewsteignton
Drewsteignton is a village and civil parish within the administrative area of West Devon, England, also lying within the Dartmoor National Park. It is located in the Teign valley, west of Exeter and south east of Okehampton...
, named after Drogo de Teigne, and alleged forefather to the Drewes. Julius stayed on several occasions with his cousin and it must have been here that he conceived the idea of building a castle on the home ground of his ancestor. He found an ideal site, and in 1910 he bought about 450 acres (1.8 km²) south and west of the village (By the time of his death in 1931 he had bought up an estate of 1,500 acres). He then went to Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
, the most interesting architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
of the time, and asked him to build his castle. According to his son Basil, he did so on the advice of William Hudson, proprietor of the Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
Magazine, who was both a patron and a champion of Lutyens. Drewe was now 54 years old, but he still had time, energy and money to create his new family seat. On 4 April 1911, Drewe's 55th birthday, the first foundation stone was laid.
Construction
The castle took many years to complete, with the First World War and the economic downturnGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
causing many delays. Castle Drogo was finally completed in 1930, considerably reduced in scale from Lutyens's 1911 designs, and only a year before Julius died; he had, however, been able to live in the house since around 1925.
Features of the building
The stately home borrows styles of castle building from the medieval and TudorTudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
periods, along with more minimalist
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
contemporary approaches. A notable feature is the encasement of the service staircase, around which the main staircase climbs. Its defensive characteristics are essentially decorative. Additionally, the castle had electricity and lifts from the outset, with power being supplied by two turbines on the river below.
Gardens
The castle has a fine formal garden, designed by Lutyens with planting by Gertrude JekyllGertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
, which contrasts effectively with its striking setting on the edge of Dartmoor
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an area of moorland in south Devon, England. Protected by National Park status, it covers .The granite upland dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops known as tors, providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife. The...
. The garden is noted for its rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
s and magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
s, herbaceous border
Herbaceous border
A herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale. The term herbaceous border is mostly in use in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth...
s, rose garden
Rose garden
A Rose garden or Rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses. Designs vary tremendously and roses may be displayed alongside other plants or grouped by individual variety, colour or class in rose beds.-Origins of the rose...
, shrub garden and circular croquet
Croquet
Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court.-History:...
lawn.
Later use
After Julius's death, his wife Frances and her son Basil continued to live at the castle. During 1939–45, Frances and her daughter Mary ran the house as a home for babies made homeless during the bombingsThe Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
of London.
Frances Drewe died in 1954 and Basil was then joined at Drogo by his son Anthony and his wife. In 1974, Anthony and his son, Dr Christopher Drewe, gave Castle Drogo and 600 acres (2.4 km²) of the surrounding land to the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
. It was the first 20th-century property the charity acquired.
A new visitor centre with shop and café opened in the summer of 2009, after English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
required that industrial kitchen equipment such as that used by the previous café within the house, be removed from Grade I listed buildings. In February 2011, National Heritage launched a public appeal for money to fund necessary restoration work.