July 16th 2017 - Castle Drogo; Exeter

Today we went to Castle Drogo. Built between 1910 and 1930 it is the last castle built in England. Castle Drogo lreaks through the roof and is now in its final phase of a conservation project. The National Trust has used the project very effectively by offering tours of the scaffolding tower to give a bird's eye view of the building work. Jim, Carol and Stephen donned hard hats and braved the scaffolding while I bravely stayed below to look after all their belongings. It was a lengthy process, prolonged, according to them, by an individual asking lots of questions allowing him to show how much he knew about scaffolding and the like.

In the Castle there was a special installation by Luke Jerram of clocks ranging from carriage clocks to grandfather clocks from ancient to modern. The installation was inspired by one of  England's greatest inventors, 16th century clockmaker John Harrison and is called "Harrison's Garden". It i s a traveling installation which will continue to grow as, at each National Trust venue, Volunteers and members of the public are asked to donate further timepieces. At Castle Drogo the collection is more than 2,000. Jerram has arranged the clocks in various shapes and patterns on the floor and surfaces and each clock is set at a different time to create a musical effect of ticking and chiming. While we were there the ticking seemed to create the soothing sound of water. We quite enjoyed it.

Because of the conservation work, Castle Drogo has been displayed in a different way to usual. It is telling the story of Castle Drogo and the Drewe family that lived here. It also tells the story of the building project from 1911 to the present day. In the drawing room the collection is displayed to tell the story of the 5 Drewe children. The 3 sons, Adrian, Basil and Cedric, all fought in the First World War and photographs and medals tell the story of what happened to them.

One of the most interesting and quirky aspects of Castle Drogo was its presentation of conservation in action. In an audio visual presentation the "agents of decay", dust and decay, are presented in a very humorous fashion. A man with a very lugubrious voice details the damage done by water, insect pests, dust, light, wear and tear to the building and its contents. We were some of the few people who looked at it and we thought it was hilarious and enlightening!

The Castle overlooks the Teign Gorge and we had a long walk to have a look as well as to admire the gardens.

Following our long walk we went in to Exeter to see the Cathedral, the Cathedral Quarter and The Quayside.

I'm assuming the "afflicted husband" was griefstricken after her death. Or could it be that he was afflicted during her life? That was Jim's opinion as he said "speaking from exoerience"!

I suggested to Jim that that could be my final repose cradling his skull!

Imagine being called Nutcombe Nutcombe!

Seemingly putting pianos outside in open spaces and encouraging passers by to play has become a trend.

We stopped for a drink at the Quayside.

All in all a good day.