I visited a castle at the weekend, Castle Drogo in Devon, the last castle built in England. Completed in 1930 at a cost of £60k, which is around £30 million in today’s money, still not bad for a castle in my opinion, although, it is only a third of its intended size. It doesn’t really matter because believe me, it’s still bloody big!
The project was commissioned by Julius Drewe who made a fortune with a grocery store empire called Home and Colonial Stores, I believe they specialised in tea! I guess you’re always going to get rich if you’re selling tea to the English! The castle was passed on down through the family until 1974 when Anthony Drewe (Julius’ Grandson) wrote a letter to the National Trust saying something like:
‘Got a castle… do ya want it?’
To which they replied by probably saying:
‘Erm, yeah, go on then, why not, it’ll be a laugh’
Upon learning this I thought “what a fool!” Why would you ever give up a castle!? Especially one in such a commanding position with all the mod-cons like electric, running water and central heating! But, it turns out that Basil (Tony’s Dad) had died and there was a massive inheritance tax bill… Times don’t really change do they? Also it turned out there were a few leaks…
Now, I’ve experienced a few leaks in my house, a couple of years ago I took the roof off to build a loft conversion. As soon as we took the roof off it seemed like we had storms every single night! I ran out of water catching receptacles I had that many leaks… I had pots, pans, buckets, mixing bowls and baking trays all laid out trying to catch the drips and in some cases, streams of water. I also had 2 burst pipes which happened after the completion of the loft, both due to ridiculous water pressure. Thanks Severn Trent!
So, as you can imagine, I am familiar with water running through the house and I was sympathetic with the Drewes when the National Trust volunteer explained that there was a bit of water damage.
“Welcome to the club!” I thought.
He explained that furniture had to be repaired and the building went through extensive repair.
“Tell me about it” my inner monologue continued.
The volunteer continued with his story by saying that the repairs and maintenance took 15 years and cost £15.5 million! This fact silenced my inner voice! Fifteen and a half million quid!?!?! Turned out that Julius in all his wisdom went against the advice of the architect to build the castle with a pitched roof like a cathedral, but, instead went for a flat roof to allow him to have extravagant parties up on the roof! Wasn’t the rest of the castle and grounds enough!? Money really doesn’t buy brains!
So, because of this terrible decision the National Trust had to remove every single paving slab from the roof and basically fit a swimming pool liner up there, then replace the slabs again. This wasn’t all, they had to remove all 913 windows, shot blast them with crushed walnut shells. Yes! Walnut shells, something to do with the frames being bronze, then replace the glass panels, of which there were 13,000 of them then re-fit in their apertures…. Also some poor sods had to repoint the place, 37 miles of mortar joints! 37 MILES!!! Serious project is a slight understatement!
If only he’d pitched the roof, maybe the family would still be occupying the whole house instead of living in a top floor flat, which, by the way, is bigger and better than most of us will ever live in! I suppose they’ve still landed on their feet!
In the 2010 film Robin Hood, Russel Crowe who portrayed Robin Longstride informed Prince John (in his weird Irish/English/Australian/Kiwi accent) that “Every Englishman’s home is his Castle.” In this case it is true! If I had the money I would 100% build me a castle! Although our ridiculously strict and antiquated planning laws and jobsworth planning officers might have some form of objection, but as Mr Drewe proved, money can get you pretty much anything you want, even if it is a stupid idea!
Keep aspiring for greatness. You never know… one day you might have a castle!
TM
