Friday - February 25, 2011

million dollar castle becoming faulty towers. some interesting photos and story

I suppose with all the news from around the revolutionary world, this is very tame and lo key. But I find this kind of thing fascinating.

I first learned about Castle Drogo, built about 80 years ago and taking 15 years to complete, from The National Trust.  The newspapers here give away CDs and DVDs on a regular basis, and about 3 or 4 yrs ago we got a set of Natl. Trust DVDs of castles and mansions etc. Breathtaking photography. I’m now kinda sorry I didn’t save them. There were several in the set and I gave em away after viewing. That was short sighted of me I see that now.
Drogo was frankly my least favorite as I thought it resembled a prison more then a castle in the traditional sense.

I think you’ll find this of interest too and the photos with the article are quite good. I won’t post any photos here but will give you the National Trust link with page after page of pix, many tho are dupes.

DREW TAKE NOTE:  900 windows and 13,000 panes of glass.

Take a look.

Built by a clergyman’s son to boost his social standing, Britain’s newest castle is crumbling - like its founder’s dream

By GUY WALTERS

From a distance, it does not look like a real castle, but a Hollywood imitation. Standing on a granite outcrop on the edge of Dartmoor, the stonework seems so perfect that you suspect that it might be made out of polystyrene, and could be lifted up by a class of seven-year-olds.

It is only when you travel down its imposing drive that you realise Castle Drogo is the real thing, consisting of thousands of blocks of granite that would keep out the most determined army of barbarians.

However, of all the hundreds of castles ever built in Britain, this is one that has never had to endure an attack or a siege. For it was completed only eight decades ago. Built by Julius Drewe, a wealthy young retail magnate, Castle Drogo can truly be regarded as Britain’s last castle.

Although it never suffered the ravages of warfare, Castle Drogo, despite its youth, now faces a far more deadly enemy — the weather. As any reader of The Hound Of The Baskervilles knows, the conditions on Dartmoor are legendarily tough, and at the moment Drogo is fighting a losing battle.

Its huge roof is leaking, so too are its 900 windows with their 13,000 panes of glass, and the pointing between the enormous slabs of granite is letting in water. Far from being an impregnable castle, it is fast becoming a huge sponge.

The castle’s owner, the National Trust, has launched a campaign to raise the estimated £11 million needed to make the roof watertight, stop all the windows leaking, and replace nearly 40 miles of pointing.

Some of the cost will be met by the Trust itself, but the public is also being asked to donate £1.5 million to save Drogo. For the castle is not just of architectural importance: a very British story of class, ambition and tragedy also played out within its walls.

The story begins in 1910, when Julius Drewe approached the renowned architect Edwin Lutyens and told him that he had £60,000 to spend on a new castle and a garden. Privately, Lutyens was ambivalent about the plan and preferred that Drewe ignored the castle idea in favour of a ‘delicious lovely house with plenty of good rooms’.

However, the monumental size of the budget — today worth £30 million to £40 million — was enough to persuade Lutyens to accept the commission.

Ambitious Drewe wanted a castle rather than a ‘lovely house’ in order to put his family on the map, both topographically and socially.

Drewe came from a well-to-do but unspectacular background — his father was a cleric and a Cambridge lecturer — and joined his uncle’s tea-importing company at 17. Just five years later, in 1878, he branched out on his own with a shop in Liverpool, which mushroomed into the phenomenally successful Home and Colonial Stores, one of the UK’s largest retail chains.

Rich enough to retire by the age of 33, Drewe spent his days fishing and enjoying the company of his wife and five children.

There was only one problem. Although he had more money than most members of the gentry, he was not considered one of them — and so began a campaign to gain entry to this exclusive club.

Now, a desire to move up the social ladder is endemic to many Englishmen, but few have the resources to fund their dreams. He hired a genealogist, who somehow managed to find a link between Drewe and the very upmarket Drewes of Elizabethan Devon, one of whom had been Sergeant at Law to the Queen, and another knighted by Charles I.

This link was undoubtedly false — Drewe’s real name was ‘Drew’, and he only added a final ‘e’ when he was told about the possibility of a connection with the Devon family.

Drewe may have gained vast wealth and an extra letter in his surname, but what he really needed was a ‘family seat’ and, once again, the helpful genealogist suggested links both with a ‘Dru’ or a ‘Drogo’ who had fought with William the Conqueror, and a Drogo of Teignton, after whom the Devon village of Drewsteignton was named.

MORE READING AND GOOD PHOTOS HERE

OK, Please use this National Trust link. Before viewing all the other shots, scroll down a short way to Page 3.
You will see a snapshot of Drogo from the air. Click on it.  This is the Dartmoor Blog.  I don’t think it’s really a blog as we know it but no matter.  Be sure and see the spectacular aerial photo of this place. It will enlarge and fill your screen and you can scroll, depending I guess on your pc software.
Worth the sight and time.

DROGO CASTLE, NATL. TRUST

Posted by peiper     on 02/25/2011 at 05:59 AM   
Filed Under: • Architecture •  
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