Set beneath an often dark and stormy moorland, imposing, solid granite walls and a doorway with a working portcullis greet visitors to Castle Drogo. The austere medieval and Tudor themes continue inside, where a massive stone arch dominates the library, the ceilings are majestically high and the walls and woodwork are unpainted.
Edwin Lutyens
And yet within its formidable shell the renowned British architect Edwin Lutyens has crafted a charming family home. The interior space is nicely broken into several levels and the rooms, corridors and staircases, though large, are not intimidating. Daylight is cleverly carried to the kitchen and larder in the centre of the ground floor through an octagonal glass lantern. The service staircase is discretely hidden within the turns of the main staircase.
The furnishings help to humanize the castle. Sofas are strewn with cushions, contemporary books and magazines lie on tables and elegant wooden cabinets are filled with idiosyncratic treasures. The well-worn ‘electric table cloth’ adds a personal touch to the huge table in the dining room.
Julius Drewe
Lutyens designed Castle Drogo in 1911 for its owner Julius Drewe, a businessman who established the Home and Colonial stores in many English towns. Drewe traced his ancestry to the Norman baron Drogo de Teigne who claimed the land in the twelfth century. Construction was suspended during the first world war and completed in 1931, just a year before Drewe’s death. It is said to be the last castle ever built in England.
The imprint of the Drewe family is noticeable throughout. Their painted portraits cover the walls, well-equipped dolls houses fill bay windows, radios and gramophones sit on bedside tables. In the drawing room a large tapestry depicting an incident in the book Don Quixote is one of several items that Drewe acquired from a bankrupt Spanish financier. A small room is dedicated to the memory of Julius Drewe’s son Adrian who was a soldier killed in action.
Formal Garden
The servants’ quarters connected by a telephone switchboard, clothes hanging in wooden wardrobes, the intimate private chapel, electrical circuits powered from a turbine in the nearby River Teign and the pots, and pans and storage containers in the kitchen and scullery complete a fascinating picture of life in the upper echelons of society in the first half of the last century.
Lutyens was assisted by the gardener George Dillistone and the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll in setting out and planting the formal garden beside the house. It is noted for its magnolias, rhododendrons and roses and for a fine view framed by yew trees out over the surrounding countryside and towards the distant tors of Dartmoor. Between the garden and modern National Trust shop is a circular lawn where visitors are invited to play croquet.
The National Trust
While parts of the house are still used by the family, in 1974 Julius Drewe’s descendants donated Castle Drogo to the National Trust, England’s leading charity devoted to preserving heritage buildings and landscapes. Maintaining the castle has been a challenge ever since and funds are still needed for some substantial, costly repairs to ward off creeping damp.
A team of volunteers keeps the house and grounds open from 1 March till 22 December, though visitors should check for specific opening days. The annual activity programme includes guided tours, art and craft workshops, hikes and in November a demanding ten-mile cross-country race down to the River Teign 900 feet below the house. The Fingle Bridge over the river is also maintained by the National Trust, as is Whiddon Deer Park high above the river’s southern bank.
Getting to Castle Drogo is easiest by road, from the A382 five miles south of the A30 near Okehampton. The nearest train station is at Yeoford eight miles away; buses run from Okehampton during the summer. For serious walkers the long-distance Two Moors Way footpath passes nearby.
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