Hydro-Electric Engine House at Castle Drogo is a Grade II listed building in the Dartmoor National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 February 2011. Turbine house.
Hydro-Electric Engine House at Castle Drogo
- WRENN ID
- far-bronze-linden
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Dartmoor National Park
- Constituency
- Central Devon MP: Sir Mel Stride (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 9 February 2011
- Type
- Turbine house
- Address
- Hydro-Electric Engine House at Castle Drogo, Moretonhampstead, Teignbridge
- OS grid reference
- SX 725 898
- Coordinates
- 50.69449, -3.80637
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The hydro-electric engine house at Castle Drogo was built in the 1920s by Sir Edwin Lutyens to provide electricity for the house. It is a small, single-storey concrete building with a steeply pitched roof, originally thatched, now covered in corrugated metal. The building sits in the valley of the River Teign and receives water via a pipeline leading to screening tanks, then under pressure to the turbines within. The east elevation features a plank double door with a light casement, and a further casement window is on the north elevation, overlooking a stepped outflow sluice and sluice gate. Screening tanks extend to the west.
Inside, the interior is open to the roof, revealing boarded common rafters. Original equipment remains, including a Crompton turbine, a Gilkes governor, a generator, and a distribution board, along with the machine base and conduit for a second turbine. The two turbines were designed for alternating use, one operating during summer and the other in winter.
Castle Drogo itself was a country house designed by Lutyens for Julius Drewe, with work commencing in 1911 and continuing until 1930. The turbine house is located to the southeast of the main house, along the south bank of the River Teign. The engine house is notable for its deliberate use of vernacular architectural elements within a small industrial building and is a complete example of a private electricity generation scheme from the 1920s. It has group value with Castle Drogo, the stables and the designed landscape.
Local climate
Hydro-Electric Engine House at Castle Drogo receives an average of 930 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 71% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 67% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 55% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
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