Editing Castle Drogo (section)

==History==
{{Main|Julius Drewe}}
In 1910 Julius Drewe bought about {{convert|450|acre|km2}} south and west of the village of [[Drewsteignton]] in the belief that he was descended from the Drewe family that once lived here.{{sfn|Greeves|2008|p=69}} Born Drew, the son of George Smith Drew and his wife Mary, née Peek, both from substantial families of grocers, Drewe added the "e" to his surname later in life.{{sfn|de Moubray|2013|p=83}} At the age of 18, Drewe was sent to China as a tea-buyer by his uncle, Francis Peek (c.1836–99), a partner in Liverpool tea-merchants Peek and Winch. Julius's great uncle, Richard Peek (1782–1867), one of the three brothers who founded Peek and Winch, was an abolitionist and philanthropist who was on the organising committee of the anti-slavery conventions held in London in 1840 and 1843. The Peek and Winch company later expanded into coffee, cocoa, rubber and spices, and owned plantations in the [[Dutch East Indies]]. In 1878, Drewe returned to Liverpool and opened the Willow Pattern Tea Store. In 1883, Drewe and John Musker (1846–1926) founded the Home and Colonial Trading Association (later Home and Colonial Stores), which sold teas selected in India by Drewe, alongside other groceries. By 1903, the company had 500 stores. By the time of his death in 1931 he had bought up an estate of 1,500 acres. Around 1910 he asked [[Edwin Lutyens]] to build him a castle.{{sfn|Aslet|1982|p=183}} According to his son Basil, he did so on the advice of [[Edward Hudson (magazine owner)|Edward Hudson]], proprietor of ''[[Country Life (magazine)|Country Life]]'' 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. The budget was £50,000 for the castle, and a further £10,000 for the garden.{{sfn|Brown|1997|p=231}} Lutyens wrote privately of his concern over Drewe's ambitions; "I do wish he didn't want a castle but just a delicious loveable house with plenty of good large rooms in it".{{sfn|Ridley|2003|p=195}} On 4 April 1911, Drewe's 55th birthday, the first foundation stone was laid.<ref>[http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/notable%20houses/castle%20drogo.htm The Heritage Trail | Castle Drogo] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924130003/http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/notable%20houses/castle%20drogo.htm |date=24 September 2009 }}</ref>
[[File:Drewe OfCastleDrogo Arms.png|thumb|upright|left|150px|Arms of Drewe of Castle Drogo: ''Ermine, a lion passant per pale gules and or in chief three ears of wheat stalked and bladed of the last''.<ref>[[John Burke (genealogist)|
Burke's]] Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, p. 643</ref> This is a [[Difference (heraldry)|differenced]] version of the arms of the [[Drewe family of Broadhembury]], from whom Julius Drewe claimed descent]]

===Construction===
The castle took many years to complete, with the First World War and the [[Great Depression|economic downturn]] causing many delays. One reason for the slow progress was the very limited number of craftsmen used. The writer [[Christopher Hussey (historian)|Christopher Hussey]] records that "after the first year, every stone was laid by two men alone...Devon masons Cleeve and Dewdney".{{sfn|Hussey|1950|p=225}} As significant, was Drewe's waning enthusiasm; his son and heir Adrian was killed on 12 July 1917, in early skirmishes prior to the [[Battle of Passchendaele]].{{sfn|Evans|2009|p=42}} Drewe's daughter later recalled, "after my brother's death...the joy of life went out as far as my father and mother were concerned...my father really was somewhat of an invalid afterwards.{{sfn|Evans|2009|p=43}} Overall responsibility for the construction work was held by Drewe's agent, John Coates Walker, described in the most recent guide to the castle as "the unsung hero of the whole venture".{{sfn|Evans|2009|p=14}} Castle Drogo was finally completed in 1930, roughly a third of the size of Lutyens's 1911 designs,{{sfn|Cherry|Pevsner|2004|p=245}} and only a year before Julius died; he had, however, been able to live in the house since around 1925. The catalogue prepared for the 1981 exhibition at the [[Hayward Gallery]] on Lutyens' work describes Drogo as "one of his finest buildings".{{sfn|Amery|1982|p=119}} It was built at the same time as [[Lutyens' Delhi|Lutyens's work in New Delhi]], resulting in many similarities in design.

===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 [[The Blitz|bombings]] 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, Whiddon Farm, several cottages in Drewsteignton, a financial dowry and {{convert|600|acre|km2}} of the surrounding land to the [[National Trust]]. It was the first 20th-century property the charity acquired.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southwest/series6/castle_drogo.shtml|title=BBC Inside Out – Castle Drogo|publisher=BBC}}</ref> The writer and National Trust administrator [[James Lees-Milne]] recorded his impressions of the house and its owners in a diary entry dated 9 September 1976; "Reached Castle Drogo ... at eleven. Very satisfactory house of clean-cut granite. A new family aspiring to, rather arriving at, landed gentry-hood and now the representative living upstairs in a tiny flat, all within my lifetime".{{sfn|Lees-Milne|1998|p=120}}

The castle has been{{when|date=February 2025}} undergoing an extensive, five-year restoration.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/castle-drogo/features/saving-castle-drogo|title=Saving Castle Drogo|website=National Trust}}</ref> A new visitor centre with shop and café opened in the summer of 2009, after [[English Heritage]] 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, the National Trust launched a public appeal for money to fund necessary restoration work.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8316296/Campaign-to-save-the-last-castle-built-in-England.html |title=Campaign to save the last castle built in England |work=The Telegraph |date=10 February 2011 |accessdate=10 February 2011}}</ref>