Castle Drogo, Exeter, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. 

Early 20th century formal gardens with elements designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and George Dillistone of R Wallace and Co, for an early 20th century castle designed by Lutyens for Julius Drewe. Gertrude Jekyll advised on the planting for the approach, and the formal landscape around the house is linked to the adjoining managed moorland and steep river valley by a series of walks which allow dramatic views of the wider landscape, and of Castle Drogo itself.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Castle Drogo is situated about 2 kilometres south-west of the village of Drewsteignton and about 3 kilometres north-east of Chagford, to the east of the A382. The 60 hectare site, which comprises about 3 hectares of formal gardens, about 12 hectares of informal grounds around the Castle and principal drive, and about 45 hectares of managed landscape within the Teign gorge, is principally enclosed by traditional banks and hedges to the north, east and west, and by the River Teign to the south. The Castle and formal and informal gardens occupy a level spur of high ground which drops sharply to the west and south allowing dramatic views to Dartmoor and into the Teign valley. To the south the River Teign runs in a deep gorge with a rocky outcrop, Sharp Tor, some 700 metres south-east of the house, while Whiddon Wood and the 16th century deer park, Whiddon Park, outside the site boundary on the north-facing slope of the gorge, are significant in creating views from the Castle and informal grounds.

REFERENCES

Country Life, 98 (3 August 1945), pp 200-203; (10 August 1945), pp 244-247

C Hussey, The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens (1950)

Garden History 3, (1975), pp 426-429

Gardeners' Chronicle 192, no 10 (1982), pp 21-25

J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), pp 110(11, 146-147, 171

Castle Drogo Gardens, guidebook, (National Trust 1990)

G Jackson-Stops, An English Arcadia 1600(1990 (1991), pp 149-153

Castle Drogo, guidebook, (National Trust 1996)

Maps

Tithe map for Drewsteignton parish, nd (c 1840), (Devon Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1884, published 1889

    2nd edition revised 1904, published 1906

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1884, published 1885

    2nd edition revised 1904, published 1905

E Lutyens, Plans for Castle Drogo, (RIBA Drawings Collection) [copies at West CountrY Studies Library, Exeter]

G Jekyll, Planting scheme for the drive at Castle Drogo, (Reef Point Gardens Collection, Folder 128, University of California, Berkeley) [copies at Lindley Library, London]

Illustrations

C Farey, Perspective views of Castle Drogo, 1923 (at Castle Drogo 1998)

Description written: October 1998

Amended: May 1999; May 2000

Edited: July 2000