Dartington Hall Trust

"In 1925, Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst purchased the neglected 14th century Dartington estate. The Elmhirsts were pioneers, inspired by many innovative thinkers of the time and Dorothy had inherited considerable wealth, which she devoted to founding the Dartington Hall Trust. The Elmhirsts poured their resources into the “Dartington Experiment” – restoring the estate buildings and setting up a host of farming, forestry and educational projects. Early initiatives included Dartington Hall School, Dartington Tweed Mill and later Dartington Glass.

"Dartington rapidly became a magnet for artists, architects, writers, philosophers and musicians from around the world, creating an exceptional centre of creative activity. The roll-call of outstanding people involved in the Dartington experiment includes Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel Barenboim, Arthur Rubinstein, Igor Stravinsky, Imogen Holst, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davies, Ravi Shankar, T E Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’), Bernard Leach, Paul Robeson, William Lescaze, Walter Gropius, Maholy Nagy, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, HG Wells, Yehudi Menuhin, Simon Rattle, Ben Nicholson, Aldous Huxley, James Lovelock, Rupert Sheldrake, Hazel Henderson, Amory Lovins, Jonathan Porritt, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Paul Hawken and Vandana Shiva.

"The list of landmark events associated with Dartington is equally remarkable. It was at Dartington that the post-war Labour manifesto was penned by Herbert Morrison; it was here that the Arts Council was conceived and the first arts school with practising and performing artists was established. The International Summer School moved to Dartington in 1953 and has become renowned for offering amateurs a unique opportunity to play with the world’s leading musicians – and for professionals to experiment and explore new collaborations... More recently, Dartington has continued to push boundaries. In 1991, long before climate change was a major concern, we set up Schumacher College, which has become a leading international centre for sustainable education."

Selected Staff
Accessed April 2012:


 * Vaughan Lindsay - Chief Executive Officer
 * David Francis - Director of Arts
 * Celia Atherton - Director of Social Justice

Board of Trustees
Accessed April 2012:


 * Sir David Green - chair
 * Gay Cranmer
 * Liz Firth
 * Sir Nicholas Kenyon
 * Patricia Williams
 * Peter Mather
 * Dame Jo Williams
 * Rob Sexton (UK)
 * Gerard Lemos

Trustees (1965)

 * Leonard Elmhirst
 * Dorothy Elmhirst
 * W.K. Elmhirst
 * Peter Sutcliffe
 * Michael Young
 * Maurice Ash

Contact
URL: http://www.dartington.org

Related Sourcewatch

 * Victor Bonham-Carter - official historian
 * Charlie McConnell
 * Tom Stevens - former conservation manager
 * Sir Clement Freud - former student
 * Oliver Postgate - former student
 * Lord Young of Dartington - former student
 * Richard Leacock - former student
 * James Cornford - former student and subsequent chairman
 * Claire Tomalin - former student later New Statesman literary editor. Her contemporaries at Dartington included Jonathan Miller, Peter Hall and Joan Bakewell.
 * Irish playwright Sean O'Casey
 * Anne Phillips
 * Rabindranath Tagore
 * Luise Holtbernd - phd student
 * Alice Astor
 * Nancy Wilson Ross
 * Martin Crawford
 * Gerald Heard Famous people who went to Dartington
 * Michael Dower
 * Trewin Restorick - former staff
 * Kate Caddy - former trustee and granddaughter of Leonard Elmhirst
 * John Lane - former chairman