Abundant Life - A Retirement Community at Foxhole

I would be interested in similar project near York.

sorry to have missed the consultation but love the concept – please keep me informed

Looks very interesting - I worked in the east wing of the Hall for nearly 20 years and enjoyed it very much. Shall watch developments with interest.

I would very much like to register my interest in this exciting project as it sounds an idea that I would like to to live in. Unfortunately I did not hear about
the open session that you held in Ivybridge as I would have liked to attend it to find more information about it.

This is a wonderful opportunity to bring the arts and create a holistic enviroment for living and dying.

I studied Music-Thanatology in the US and I was inspired by my studies at Dartington to bring the arts into social contexts, such as hospices, nursing homes and hospitals. I would love the opportunity take part in this project using the arts to enhance life and the end of life.

see the MTAI the world wide professional body for music-thanatologists and for more information about me: http://www.sacred-sound.co.uk for more information in the use of harp and voice to entrain breathing and provide relaxation and spiritual support.

I am interested in this project because of my relationship to Dartington and its principles and values, and because my elderly parents are very independent people and may be interested in this project.

There seems to be some confusion about the number of rooms in each apartment. The ‘What will the development look like?’ page states, ‘Dartington would like to build an integrated retirement community consisting of 120-150 one- to three-room apartments’; FAQ 9 on this page states, ‘Individual apartments at Abundant Life will each have a minimum of two rooms’; and FAQ 16 states, ‘We are planning a community of 120 apartments, each with three or four rooms’. Would you care to clarify this?

Thank you for pointing out this inconsistency. I think that this demonstrates how early in the development we are. As formal plans have not yet been drawn up, we can only say that our hope is that we will have apartments with numerous rooms to be used in a way that best suits the occupier. For example, whilst some people may choose to have a spare bedroom and a dining room, for others this may be an art studio and an office. We want the rooms to be as flexible as possible for people, and for there to be a range to choose from. Some apartments may have two/three rooms, others may have three/four. - Helen Badley (Abundant Life Project Officer)

As a regular visitor to Dartington’s facilities, we would be very interested in your exciting project for retirement living. Please keep me informed.

I am interested in this project. I am currently on the sustainable horticulture course at Schumacher College

attended session last week in Newton Abbot and love the concept

Talk about an “offer” that both attracts and repels in roughly equal measure!
What plans/imaginings are in place now to allow those who are, now, both less able AND over 55, to take part in shaping abundance BEFORE the fully able and active have decided the fate and place of the less able in their plans?

As you may have seen, we have just undertaken three further public consultation meetings in Kingsbridge, Ivybridge and Newton Abbot to talk about our ideas for the project and to hear what people have to say. The sessions have provided us with many suggestions on things we should include in the development and we will do our best to incorporate as many of these as we can. You can get in touch with us in many ways - by the website, as you have done, by post at Dartington Hall or by telephone to offer your thoughts and suggestions. We are also hoping to hold more meetings in the future to learn more from the people who might live here in the future. - Helen Badley (Abundant Life Project Officer)

I am very happy in Ashburton at present but may wish to move to Dartibngton in the future should my health deteriorate or I need care.
The project seems a very good one.

please keep me informed of progress as I could be interested in one of the apartments as I age.

I hesitate to say I have specific skills to offer now. My background is mixed with social work, personal counselling, lots of experience in Ireland and Spain building up ruins on self sufficient basis for water and electricity but haven't got a career pathway to show. BSc ed. retain great interest in learning/recently Schumacher.

Interested in purchasing one of your larger apartments. Please keep us informed.

The ideas that underpin the project are important and will benefit by being "lived" as a way of developing them.

How wonderful to find an exciting lifestyle project for us, young, older people. So many ‘retirement’ options sound more like being put out to grass than making the most of our hard earned free time. We are keen walkers, allotmenteers, gardeners, travellers, we practice Pilates, have a small stained glass studio (shed!) and want to explore all avenues open to us for a full and satisfying life. We are both looking forward to seeing how this project develops – it is at the top of our future options.

I am involved with two similar projects in Exmouth and Brixham would it be worth sharing ideas thoughts etc to help all the County?

We are very intrested in the project,our family connection with Dartington Hall goes back to the 1930s with both our fathers having helped to create what you see today and Sheila’s mother came down from Wales to work at the school. We were married 50 years ago in March in Dartington Church Sheila was a weaver at the original textile mill while living adjacent to the YHA,her parents being the wardens. So coming to live at the development would complete the circle.

have visited many times, feel Dartington is a very special place, please keep us informed

Retirement is a number of years off yet but I am really interested in exploring models for living creatively and sociably in later life.

I am interested in the possibility of purchasing a home for my wife and myself within the community,with the prospect of use of an allotment.

Sounds like a great opportunity to share
the later years of our lives with like-minded and interesting people.

Will this development be on the lines of St. Crispins Retirement Village in Northampton? If so we would be very interested as we are both pensioners and one of of is slightly disabled.

Oh dear. From air fairy students to old bores. Why can’t the Dartington community get something which actually helps life and the living rather than lurks menacingly on the fringe.

Please would you put my name on your mailing list for information about this very exiting project!Many thanks, Diana (Totnes)

We’d love to be kept informed of the progress of the abundant Life Project, please.
Diana and Daniel

We live down Cott lane from Dartinton and are Friends of Dartington and as such have served on the small consultation group set up earlier this year. We have loved Dartington for may years, most of our leisure activities are focussed there (cinema, concerts, Alliance Française in Foxhole of which we are un-paid directors) and we would very much like to stay in the area in accommodation which is manageable as we age.

This is a wonderful project, something so many of us have been wanting to be a part of for a long time - to grow older gracefully in a supportive, alive and beautiful environment. May it grow from strength to strength!

There have been some arresting TV programmes showing the revitalising effect of communal singing on elderly people.Would it be possible to include facilities for this,such as a good digital organ and piano, and purchase of suitable music?

This is a great suggestion! There have been a good number of television programmes of late that have given inspiration and information to us as we set out on this ambitious project. We would welcome any ideas such as this and will try our best to incorporate them into the plans for the development. - Helen Badley (Abundant Life Project Officer)

Visionary communities that cater to elders are going to be hugely in demand in the near future, as aging baby-boomers contemplate the accomodations currently on offer! Please put me on your mailing list and take this as an expression of great interest.

I would like to live in some kind of creative community setting. I am part of a cohousing group in Bridport which is still in the planning stage. I am very keen to make links with other similar projects.

My husband and I have had connections with Dartington for many years through our work in Art Education. We are active (very) retired and would very much welcome the opportunity to join a community such as the Abundant Life Community and to contribute as active, positive members residents. It's a great idea and thank you so much for developing it - very exciting.

I sold my home two years ago and I am now in rented accommodation, looking to buy again at some point. I am a 57 year-old widow and I am interested in your Abundant Life project.

As my sister is about to go into a retirement village near Bath which looks wonderful, I am interested in such communities in my own area - especially those where retirement does not necessarily mean just waiting to die but to follow active new challenges both mental and physical. As a secondary school teacher currently with 40 years of experience, I would also welcome being able to put something back into the local community.

Having been a DCA student from '87 -'91 and then worked for DCA and DACS, my wife and I have lived and worked in this wonderfully inspiring place for the past 18 years and hope to continue to do so.

I am sorry I missed the consultation last September and was hoping for some more opportunities. I am rather dismayed that the project already appears as a “fait accompli” even though information is very limited and alternative schemes do not appear to have been considered. Where was the consultation on all the possible uses for Foxhole, including improving on the current mixed use scheme? Where was the consultation on the current and planned facilities for retirement living in the area, such as the Baltic Wharf project? I am worried by the large scale and the mono-generational aspect of the project, which seems unlikely to fulfill principles of social integration, diversity, affordability and sustainability. Where will the planned new buildings be erected? Who are the architects? One gets the impression that the consultation is purely a diplomatic exercise at this stage so I look forward to more information and some more serious informed consultation. Thank you!

The Abundant Life project is still very much in its early stages, having not yet even reached the point of pre-planning application work. Nothing is fixed but we have given it very careful thought, visited and learnt from many other provisions for older people around the country and are totally committed to creating provision for local people that is enabling, energising and environmentally sustainable. We are planning a further three consultation days in the New Year and we would love to see you at one of those. Our aspiration is to continue to have small business provision on site as well as fit for purpose buildings for nursery/playgroup provision. In this way we will be continuing the mixed use at Foxhole that is currently there, but improving the current facilities. If you refer to the Frequently Asked Questions section on the website, this should give you more information regarding the scale, affordability and sustainability aspirations of the development. We have not yet appointed architects, but the people we choose to work with will have to possess the necessary and very specific skills it will take to deliver this project, so we are taking our time to ensure that the best possible people are brought on board. - Helen Badley (Abundant Life Project Officer)

I would certainly like to be kept informed. I have stayed and Dartington several times and find it very special.

I did leave a paper copy of my registration but thought I would complete this as well. I have been supporting events at Dartington for 20 years and love the energies of the estate. I would love to have the chance to part of this development, especially as I am in my late 50’s. I can think of no better place to live. If there is a waiting list, how do you get on it?
Sally

We don't have a waiting list currently as we are at such an early stage with the development, but we will continue to keep the website updated with information about how the project is progressing and anyone who has registered their interest has been added to our database so that when details of how to apply become available, we will make this information accessible. - Helen Badley (Abundant Life Project Officer)

We would be very interested to hear about the development of this proposal as it moves ahead. It looks as if it could be very exciting.

All best wishes.

I have been informed that the scheme is dead in the water. It would need massive investment and the Trust don't have that. In fact the building is unsuitable the Old Postern would a better solution.

As you will see from the lively web comments and the recent article in the Totnes Times, the project is most definitely moving forward. We hope to continue to consult with local communities over the next few months and involve more people in the preliminary stages. You are right that the project needs massive investment of around £20 - £30 million, money which Dartington Hall Trust does not have alone, which is why we will be working with partner organisations to finance and deliver this large-scale project. The Old Postern has, for eighteen years, been the successful home for the Schumacher short course programme and they want to continue to run their courses from there. Foxhole was originally a place of collaborative endeavour and learning – and that is what we want to return it to with the Abundant Life project. Please keep an eye on the website and local press for further details about how the project is progressing. - Helen Badley (Abundant Life Project Officer)

Presumably you will be inundated with people wanting to live here, how and who decides who gets in?

We are at such an early stage in the development that any decisions on how and who will get a place in the Abundant Life community has not yet been decided. It is likely that there will be an application process, but this is still to be determined. - Helen Badley (Abundant Life Project Officer)

I’ve only JUST heard and I’m REALLY excited by your vision. I’d love to attend future meetings.
All good wishes

I’d most likely be interested in getting a place in this project, some time in the future, if it goes ahead. I’d be sad, however, to see Foxhole turning into a ‘housing estate’.

Like the idea -please keep me posted on developments.

I would like to go on your waiting list. Only just heard about the project. Please keep me informed of meetings etc.

We came to the meeting and are very interested. Please keep us informed.

My husband and I were unable to attend the original meeting but are extre,ely interested in this project. Please keep us informed of any developments or future meetings

Please keep me informed of the project

Thank you

I am interested to follow this project’s development and look forward to seeing the creation of an exciting retirement community which is sought after as a place to live rather than seen as the end of the road.

I would like to be kept informed of any further meetings please. This project sounds very interesting and I would like to meet some of the people who are involved in the promotion of it. My own expertise is varied and, if you are interested, you could look at my website and maybe see if I could be of any practical use?: www,persephonearbour.com
I currently live in Dorset, but have many good friends who live in Totnes and the rest of Devon. Is this project only open to people already living in the area?

Thank you, and good luck

Persephone

What was the result of the Abundant Life Big Cosultation?
Sue

I am very interested in the Foxhole project.
Please keep me informed.
Sue Moss

This sounds a good project please keep me informed

Although I believe it is positive to be exploring appropriate use for the Foxhole buildings in accordance to the changing needs in our times, the Abundant Life project does not appear the best use of this valuable property. The consultation and promotion of the project promotes the merits of the project in isolation, without taking into fair account the dozens of valuable and creative small businesses that have become established at Foxhole, the majority of which have indicated that they are unable, or will not choose to relocate to the Lescaze building due to higher rent charges, unsuitable space, or both.

It is not a coincidence that this project targets the over 50s, relatively speaking the wealthiest section of our society, and those with most capacity to buy and rent new residential properties in the very desireable Dartington Estate.

Rather than converting these buildings from their current form, built for education and student accomodation purposes, at an enormous financial and environental resource expense, it will be far better to support the sustainability values of Dartington, and refurbish the existing accomodation for future short and long term students and course attendees who will need to attend Schumacher College and practical rural skills courses on the Estate if we are going to hope to survive the 21st century at all, let alone abundantly.

Another location for this project is land belonging to the Estate at the soon to be vacated Dartington Primary School, close to the village centre of Dartington, rather than removing valuable buildings from valuable creative and educational use within in the Estate proper.

I wish the project and the Estate well, and will trust its values and maturity to make the most best decision.

Regards,

Unfortunately we were unable to attend any of the original consultation sessions but would be extremely interested in the ongoing development and proposals of the project. As we are reaching retirement but both fortunately fit and healthy it sounds exactly the sort of scheme that we are looking for and would like to contribute in.

This sounds like a very interesting project. Please keep me informed.

One more ‘thank you’ for the Big Consultation – it answered many questions and we all enjoyed it. A few more thoughts to add:
Solar panels; organic herb gardens – one near the main kitchen for the chefs to use and another one for all to share. Perhaps an outdoor café area; a bicycle shed; even chickens? …..

Hi – I believe that I could have something to offer the Abundant Life Project in terms of activities. Someone advised me to get in touch with Celia Atherton. Can you advise please.
Best wishes

It all sounds interesting, exciting and progressive. Please keep us in touch with future developments.

We attended the consultation last Friday and thought your project very interesting indeed.
We used to live at Diptford and have family in Totnes. We are in our late 70’s (but fit and active) and currently live in Exeter. We are planning to return to the Totnes area in a couple of years time, so can see a potential fit.
Would you please be kind enough to keep us informed of progress.
I am willing to help if I can.

Sorry to have missed the consultation events. It sounds a great idea so please keep me informed. What sports facilities will be available ?

I think this sounds a very exciting project. Having trained as a social worker, worked as a GP Practice Counsellor and as coordinator of a brain injury rehabilitation outpatient team where the emphasis has been to consider everyone wholistically and towards enriching their lives in whatever way is possible. I have also worked as coordinator of a small charity and later as a Trustee for this organisation. I would be interested in becoming involved with the project, possibly in an employed capacity. My partner, Philip Thorpe, is an architect, and we both value all that this project and Dartington represents.
All good wishes
Meg

I was very impressed by the presentation on 4 September at the Mansion House and would like to receive regular e-mail updates.
A few comments based on recent experience of helping a relative move to a retirement property. Apartments ( or a proportion of them) need to be couple-friendly – double bedrooms even if not called bedrooms. Regular day and evening transport to allow non-car drivers to remain active in the wider community and to use Totnes facilities etc.. Facilities and courses ( e.g. foreign language classes, ceramics, music/choral lessons) on-site but open also to non-residents and all age groups. A music room/hall with a piano and a sound proof practice room. A fear for many would be that management/maintenance charges ( usually linked to wage and utilities inflation) would outstrip pension increases especially if personal care was needed. While this is a common issue for all retirement communities, it might be helpful to offer insurance or capping arrangements on the charges, and/or the scope for gradual equity release.

I want to see how this project develops – and I’m interested in any other local co-housing projects – we all share common basic needs as we age, and we all have different skills to contribute. I’d like to live within such a community. Personally I’d prefer an on site art gallery where I could show my work and possibly sell it, rather than a swimming pool. Perhaps we can have both!
I’ve always loved Dartington, going back 38 years. I guess the success of the project will come down to funding, it usually does. Having the land is a great start. Please keep me in the loop and let me know if I can become more involved. Thanks for the presentation.

Please keep me informed

sounds wonderful would be interested in the development…please keep me informed .

Just the place I would be looking to move to to enjoy life after work. A chance to explore my creative side. Please keep me in touch with developments and how we can register. Thank you.

Unfortunately, we missed the meeting, but are very interested in the project and would like to be kept up to date with developments and become involved.

i missed the meeting on the 4th. but would be keen to be involved/informed please

Sorry to have missed your consultation day – could you add me to your email list please?

I was born and brought up in Totnes. Later working at Dartinton College and The Postern (as it was know) I remember attending concerts, plays and parties at the College, Foxhole and even the Cider Press (before it was converted) I am still in my fifty’s but having returned to Totnes to look after my parents until their recent death, I very much want to prepare for my old age. It would be great to have everything you need close at hand in a safe beauitful complex. Personally a swimming pool on site with a sauna/steam room would be wonderful. It would also be important for me to have my own outside space as well. As I am still working full-time I was not able to attend the conference on the 4th Sept but I will be interested in watching the development of this exciting project!

Please send me updates on the project. Thanks

very interested in the whole project-sounds great! also like to put my name down and my partners for the future , how to make an application would be helpful with thanks

Please keep me informed of this interesting project.When is building likely to start?

What potential! If the project could provide managed studio facilities for a range of art/craft activities & incorporate a gallery & assistance with publishing or marketing, to make it a sustainable enterprise (as in the Elmhirsts’ original concept), it would be tremendous. The potential downside of the project is the possibility of a community comprising only the elderly. People stay youthful in their outlook if they have younger people around them. If this project were cleverly organised, to incorporate roles for young and old, there could be wonderful reciprocal benefits from each other’s knowledge and resources. If these two elements could be among main tenets of the project the results would undoubtedly be amazing and might act as a model for other such life-enhancing initatives.

I am registering my interest and hope to receive your updates from time to time.

Please keep me informed.

The late Aldous Huxley (who loved Dartington when it was Dartington) might have dreamt up this Age Ghetto on one of his bad trips, but rejected it from ‘Brave New World’ as too horrible.
I described it to my 95- year-old friend and she said ‘how I should HATE to live in such a place.’
Lord Young of Dartington argued for the opposite, for integrating the elderly into society.
I assume this is really about making money and has been dressed up as a social policy initiative.

What a fantastic and creative vision. Please keep me posted!

Looks really interesting would like to know more as it happens

I am only in my early fifties, so a few years to go before I’m an ‘Older Citizen’ but I can’t imagine anywhere better to retire to. Let’s hope it gets off the ground and runs for many years!

what a wonderful idea-in a gorgeous setting. As a young thinking 66 yr old. ex waiter,ex carer. avid gardener-and now retired but volunteer cook for local age concern-here in kingsbridge-would be the first to sign up to live in Foxhole as have many nostalgic memories as in 1964 I found domestic jobs there for Max and Teri from la Coruna spain-and over the 11yrs they were there working used to visit them at weekends with my Spanish wife and our children when they were small. Am now on my own and as a young thinking “wrinkly“feel that I would be very happy to contribute to the scheme. -yours faithfully Patrik Parsliffe

Registering my interest – went to the presentation yesterday and would be keen to receive updates on the project. Good Luck with it

Interviewed yesterday, after attending the 11am presentation, I was concerned about KEEPING IN THE LOOP; I am 54, I can’t afford to buy into A-L, but I want to be kept in mind for a rented unit when they are allocated. I have diabetes, at the moment managed by diet … but I can see a day when i will need more medicalised help. How do I keep my specific interest visible in the A-L syatem?

Though my life has been a little restricted for some time I’m keen to remain as active & creative as my condition allows. I live not too far away & visit Dartington when I can but it would be much better for me to be involved with a project like this. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to Totnes today (4Sept09) but will try to attend any future meetings.
Thanks!

Hurra! I look forward to getting old now! Please keep me informed what we can contribute and when we can put our names on the waiting list.

I very much enjoyed the presentation at the Mansion House today. Please keep me posted. I am interested in volunteering my time and energy.

I would be interested in more information as it becomes available.
Thank you

What an exciting project!
I attended one of the consultations this afternoon and my feelings were yo-yo-ing between excitement and fear! Fear being because I feel too young (at 54) to be thinking of retirement homes (I am doing an art degree course and thinking about a new career!)but the reality is that I am 6 years off retirement age and wow! what a gr8 opportunity to live in such a desirable location, the amenities proposed sound wonderful. Utopian almost. Please keep me updated. Thanks

Only just saw about this tonight. Please keep me posted on how to apply if it goes ahead. Brilliant idea…looking for a community to be an active part of…58, retired teacher now printmaker and author of childrens books. Any workshop space available on the estate too? PS…first offered a teaching job in Dartington in 1972!

Having visited Hartrigg Oaks outside York, which is the only Continuity Care Retirement Community in the country, and having Friends who now live there, I am particularly interested in how the two projects will compare. Many people only think of retirement communities when they can no longer cope in their own homes. For a CCRC to thrive there needs to be a strong percentage of residents who are active and healthy.

We have visited Hartrigg Oaks too and it is very inspiring. Everyone is so active and independent, while at the same time being deeply supportive of those who have or are becoming more frail. Since they started ten years ago quite a few more retirement communities have been opened around the country, but none in the south west. We aspire to the best of what is happening at Hartrigg Oaks... and more. We will have connections with the sustainability, social justice and arts programmes here at Dartington; our communal facilities will be for residents and the local community, the charges will be affordable to all; and we will have active small business space within the same provision. - Helen Badley (Abundant Life Project Officer)

Love Dartington and all that it stands for. Apologies for not making the Consultation. I would like to be kept informed and put on any waiting list being prepared.

Please add me to your mailing list – thanks

Impressive presentation. Please keep us informed

Please keep us updated. We fell in love with the Estate and Totnes about 12 years ago and have visited, en famille, several times every year since.
Liz & Neville

Really very interested in the proposed Dartington project! Please send me regular updates.Now 58 but is it possible to put my name down on a possible waiting list? Many thanks

Having experienced the retirement villages in America and would be interested in a similar concept at Dartington.

We have only just heard about this truly interesting and exciting project. Will come along on Friday and hope to learn more. Please keep me informed. Many thanks

I have been interested in this project since last year, when I joined The Friends of Dartington. Having first come to visit for a concert in 1965 and then having come regularly to summer school and other events, I find that I cannot imagine a life without Dartington! The abundant life project is a welcome concept in an increasingly individualistic age. I welcome the opportunity to explore ways of involving senior citizens with a continuum of need in a caring society where they too, can help their own community, both socially, and with their talents and experience.

Ellie Farrar

very exciting idea – I am a young 67 year old – still working full time – my husband a semi retired 72. It would be of great interest to receive further information – have always been concerned for our ‘future’.

Really very interested would love to register

Please send me any information when it becomes available. This sounds like a fantastic project. Good luck!

a brilliant idea.hopefully the prices
of the properties will
be right. good luck
JOHN dartington born and
bred.

Excited by the project. Please add us to your mailing list

I have just read the article in today’s Western Morning News and also visited your web site. I should like to be kept informed of progress and hope to attend the meeting on Friday 4th Sept.20009

I am unable to attend the consultation on 4th September, but would like to know whether there would be an allocation of reserved places for the indigenous population of Totnes/Dartington or those with very relevant links to the area? I would also like to be contacted by someone to see if this project could be replicated overseas and would like to assist with set-up. Please add me to your mailing list.
I went to Dartington Primary School, Dartington Summer School, danced around the Maypole at Dartington Hall Open Days, picnicked, cried, danced and sang in the gardens, attended Dinner Dances and wonderful Christmas celebrations in the Great Hall, drama, enjoyed drinks and wonderful food at the White Hart……what an absolutely, truly outstanding and most appropriate idea for the concepts and dreams of Mr & Mrs Elmhirst !

I lived and worked in Dartington for 35 years. My Dad was headmaster of the primary school in the early ’60’s during the Beatles era (!) and we lived at Staple. Our thatched estate house was destroyed by fire. Later in life my wife and I owned the Sea Trout Inn, Maltsters Arms and finally the Olde Cott Inn. My second daughter was born in Totnes. We are now thinking about retirement in the next 2-4 years and a Dartington community project would be perfect. We can still pull a few pints! Foxhole brings back memories of tea with the Childs who were headmasters in the 60’s where we discussed the social integration of the Foxhole kids and the villagers! Put us down for a 2 bed for sure.

Practicalities please. 1. Are you on a bus route?
2. Do we get an allocated parking place?
3. How far from doctor?
Please add me to your email list.
Joanne Cook

It sounds like a great idea, and as a five times visitor to DISS, and as a painter and music lover I am very
interested in applying. I’ll be 62 in
2013. I love the Dartington ethos and am keen to engage in
this or something similar.

Please keep me in touch by email.

Very interested in this scheme for when I retire soon, please add me to any list, will be at the meeting next week to find out more

would you please add me to your mailing list

Please add me to your mailing list. Dartington has always been my home. This sounds like a great project.

what a great project. please send me info when available regarding buying and renting. Many thanks

Really interested in knowing when applications will be accepted.
My 71 year old mother looked enthusiastic about her retirement for the very first time when I told of this project. She can’t bear to be inactive and is a passionate gardener. My 82 year old father refuses to accept age as a barrier for anything – especially being active – even after a gruelling operation recently – if any couple would benefit from this project it is them.
They visit me reguarly in Totnes and love Dartington.

Please send me regular updates. Thanks

I have only just heard of this project which sounds very interesting, and I will come to Totnes on 4th September to hear more about it.

I would like to attend this conference, do i just turn up?

Have browsed the “Abundant Life Project” on your site. Please add me to your mailing list.

Dear everyone, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions to date. We’re really thrilled to read of so much enthusiasm for our latest project. I just wanted to post a quick reminder about the Abundant Life community consultation sessions on Friday 4th September at the Mansion House Hall, Fore Street, Totnes. Sessions will take place on the hour between 10am and 6pm (but not 1pm). Please do come along and pass the details on to friends and family too. We look forward to meeting you there. Warm wishes, Susie

Great project!

I wish to learn more about the project and I am looking forward to the meeting on September 4th

please send details as soon as they are available. 1/2 bedroom

I am very interested in this project. I know that you have contacted the Mary Fielding Institute in London, and hope that the quality of life and caring could be similar.

Please add me to your mailing list. I have been following your plans with interest and will come to the mansion on 04.09.
Annette Stirling.

The concept of creating an arts-based community with production facilities for different media is both inspired and truly inspiring.

Please keep me informed of developments. I will come to the meeting at the Mansion House.Sounds like a fascinating idea.

I understand that you would like to hear our suggestions and am writing to voice my two pence worth in case I am unable to come to the Big Consultation.

1 “Walk in, sit down baths” fitted in the apartments. The Premier Easy-Bathe www.premier-bathrooms.com/easybathe_bathtub.php comes to mind. These compact, temperature-controlled baths, with shower over, would be a boon to the frail elderly, providing the cost is not prohibitive. Would they perhaps remove the need for a purpose-built communal bathroom, complete with hoist machinery, to assist staff in bathing the infirm? I was very upset to see my elderly mother being manhandled into these hoists in her retirement home. I was told that two members of staff had to be in attendance each time to satisfy the insurance conditions. With a bath such as the Easy-Bathe, perhaps one care staff would be all that is needed to bathe someone in their own home?

2 If possible, some sort of noise reduction membrane fitted between lower and upper apartments to reduce television noise.

I am very impressed with your work so far and hope to be able to attend on 4 September. It is refreshing to be asked for our comments…

Best wishes

D Walsh

Sounds interesting. Please keep me in touch with how the thinking is developing. I’m around this area for about 3/4 months pa and have been coming to Dartington for over 40 years. Gill Golding

In the past six months I have been involved in helping to set up a branch of the U3A in Totnes and have been astonished but delighted by the interest shown right from the start. 200 local people have already signed up for a more “abundant life” and are taking part in study groups of many kinds.

A retirement concept which carries forward the idea of a fulfilling life in a retirement village will appeal to many of our members no doubt and I hope that we will be able to contribute to your concept with our ideas and enthusiasm.

My one concern is the cost; residential care is now extremely expensive and to provide the facilities you wish to make available will cost more than most of us will be able to afford in old age. How will your costs compare with other residential care and such local facilities as Home Meadow?

What a great idea. Please keep me informed of developments. Will attend Mansion House meeting

My whole 85 years have been spent in London – and it’s hard to imagine life anywhere else; BUT my greatest treat/oasis in the last ten years has been annual visit to Ways With Words in incredibly lovely Dartington. Would love to know more and to be kept in touch.

My whole 85 years have been spent in London – and it’s hard to imagine life anywhere else; BUT my greatest annual treat/oasis in the last ten years has been ten days at Ways With Words in incredibly lovely Dartington. Would love to know more and to be kept in touch.

your plans are what i’ve dreamed of for many years – brilliant – and to have such a great building and area for the basis of this ….please keep me informed and put me on any waiting list please!

Please\add my name to waiting list, very exciting idea. Best wishes

We are very interested in The Abundant Life Project and hope to be at one of the 8 Big Consultations.
Please keep us posted and on the lists!

I should like to be kept informed of the Abundant Life project. Over the past twelve years (since I returned to England after a career in the European Union) I have attended several courses both at Schumacher and at Dartington Hall. I love the area and could well imagine a splendid 3rd/4th age active retirement there. I presently live in Wiltshire, only a couple of hours’ drive away. Please add me to any email information listing which may exist. Thankyou, and good luck! Janet Watford

I was wondering what place end of life/palliative care would have within this exciting project

Hello, I am very interested in the ‘Abundant Life’ project…whether or not the accommodation would be for sale or rent?
At present I live in Queensland, & am returning to the UK at the end of the year…
I am ‘recent’ retirement age…& my mother, a frequent visitor to Dartington is 96. So the idea of a varied community is fabulous…
BUT – I take up a matter briefly mentioned by another writer….dogs/pets/our four-legged-friends.
It’s widely accepted in many medical & psychological circles that contact with animals is beneficial to both mental & physical health, & the desire to ‘connect’ with ‘outside life.’
Many life-style ads. portray a cute bouncing puppy, or loyal four-legged friend.
Working with horses has proved to be break-through treatment for autistic people, & life-changing in the attitudes of others….
I have been fortunate insofar that I have had both….I have been a riding instructor here, & although I have now retired my horses, I am bringing my dogs home with me….
Yet, when reading housing advertisements, the landscape is scattered with that old cookie -‘no pets.’
Somebody, somewhere, sometime needs to address the double standard of this.
For one thing, most ‘older’ people remember very well a time when animals were part of their lives – & walking a little dog is often the only thing which motivates a daily walk…& a visit to the old ‘clydie’ which pulled the milk cart the only chance to take in the wholesome aroma of a life once known….
Please, ‘Abundant Life’ project – dare to be different – include some provision for animals.
I put my hand up to offer care & support for this aspect – yes – even a Dartington horse…(also provides fertilizer for the gardens!)
Of course, not everyone wants, or is able to care for their own pet, but the rise of ‘therapy’ – & now ‘medical alert’ dogs, on top of the already wonderful & well-known work of ‘seeing-eye’ dogs is showing what a necessary & under-estimated part our furry friends play in our overall well-being & expression of an ‘abundant life.’

I would love to see this subject addressed more deeply – & in the glorious surroundings of Dartington, it could be a reality…

Looking forward with interest to hearing more about this project…

Gabriel

Would be very interested in learning more and assisting in set up.
Barry.

Having already very happily lived at Dartington as a student in the 60’s, it would be wonderful to do so again as an over 60 … please keep me informed, and my very best wishes for such an exciting and innovative project Mary Jacob

Thank you, Celia, for updating your blog so carefully – it helps us to plan for our futures. I can see your village becoming a wonderfully happy, caring, vibrant community. My only query is as to how ‘nursing home’ facilities can be given in people’s homes, but I expect all will become clear in time… Take care…

Sounds like a great idea in a perfect location! please keep me posted.

What a wonderful project! I shall look forward to receiving further information from your emailing list.

We are very interested in Dartington Hall’s
enterprising
plan for retirement. Please put me on your email list to keep me updated on this exciting project.

I am interetsed in the idea of creating a place that takes the concept of advancing years and that of creativity and places them in the same space – the notion that the desire to be creative makes for a likemindedness that might transcend the isolation of age groups is brilliant – I am keen to hear more. I am also very interetsed in people as living archives; I am involved in an exciting project with the MLA at the moment which is looking at how archives can link to society in a wider way. I am keen to give thought to how our social history, that is held inside the experiences of older people might be captured, shared and developed by younger people – within the lifetimes of the old. I like the concept of reminicince projects and how we might create opportunities for joint work that is both reminicence project for the old and research project for the young – like a harvesting of living memory for joint development and growth. Great project you are planning – please keep me informed.

I’m very interested in this exciting project. So please add me to any email list. Thank you!

A wonderful idea, just what I’m looking for. If you have an emailing list please add me to it.

Sounds fantastic! I’ve a background in public sector supported housing development and would love to get involved in any way that would be useful. Good luck!

Your Scopello correspondent’s doubtless cheerily intended reference to “crazy kids” at Foxhole when referring to the emergence of your “abundant life/dolce vita” project sprang to mind when I was visiting the Madness and Modernity exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, the other day [http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/exhibitions/Madness-and-Modernity/index.htm]. The crux of what is described there is the shift at the terminus of the 19th century from confining the body in order to treat the mind (the Viennese sanitorium) toward treating the mind (in the psychoanalyst’s consulting room) in order to treat the body. My point is that your project in these far post-Freudian times makes me think there might be some future in a re-exploration of the sanitorium model. Your man in Sicily enquires “is it a convent? is it a prison?”. Might it not be something on the lines of what a new arrival saw when he arrived at Otto Wagner’s Viennese “Am Steinhof” psychiatric hospital in 1907: “a white city shimmering in the bright summer sun”?

discovered the project, yesterday, and i would like to get involved, but how?

An excellent idea but I cannot see how buildings designed for 12-18 year olds can be adapted for 70-90 year olds, assuming people are not to be expelled when they become innconvenient of course – 8:1 is a reasonable care to patient/inmate ratio if various geriatric homes/wards I have seen are anything to go by.
Foxhole rooms seem an ideal place to be if fit and continent, if not??

Sounds like a wonderful idea; to be with like-minded people in the Golden years. Please keep me in touch.

What a wonderful idea. With many happy memories of Foxhole (who can ever forget the big white footprints on the roof or Curry’s car in the dining room) it would be a fine place to retire to. I am looking forward to more information.

Yes Please. 45 now and dreaming of such a retirement. How much? Michele and colin

A wonderful idea – I love Dartington, its people and its ideals – please count me in and keep me informed. All good wishes for your scheme.

It all sounds very exciting. Can we put our names down for a place in, say, 10 years time? How will it work? Rental or purchase or some of each? Please keep us informed of developments.

Warm wishes from us. Sounds like an excellent project. Please keep us informed.

Well done Dartington. What a great idea! Please keep me informed.

Down here in Scopello this is a hard for me to imagine. The saving grace of Foxhole as I recall it, was that it was populated by crazy kids and crazier professori, who knew how to climb to the roof when the sun was shining. Otherwise it was winding staircases, slippery corridors, unusual lavatories and honeycomb of cells and attics. Just looking at your aeroplane picture brings it all back. Is it a prisone or convento? Some new bushes in the quadrangle, I see. But we would have found a use for them better I think than I will expect anyone much over 60 years. The Abundant Life – La Dolce Vita indeed! I wonder!
So building for my old age I think you want sliding walls, not slippery floors. Very bending spaces for family members to visit; a creche for grandparenting; big big gaps between people; elevators; low-cost, high devotion lifestyle; cappella cruciverba; big solar (I remember how hard the little children used to have to work in the boiler room!). Something altogether much more Japanese. The denominatore comune, ancient and modern, will be the stairway farmacista, I expect. No, I believe a new approach is needed here. As your Maurizio used to say to my anc Danilo, “Where is the bulldozer when you need it?”

Cradle to the grave – as an Old Dartingtonian who enjoyed living at Foxhole, I fancy the idea of returning in later age. And will the only three rules still be ‘no dogs, firearms or motor vehicles allowed’? Perhaps you might consider a waiver on dogs?

Well done, Dartington Hall Trust. As a WRVS volunteer I meet many older people who have so much to give, but either feel that their contribution would not be valued or have no framework in which to offer it. Can’t wait to read more!

Your project is very exciting. We are a contemporary online magazine – www.giddylimits.co.uk – that focuses on inspirational stories as well as ideas, information and challenges for men and women over 50.

I’d be pleased to hear about your project and wish you every success.

What an exciting & fascinating project! Timely, and in keeping with the spirit of Dartington. I shall follow developments with great interest.

very good idea please keep me up to date

Foxhole(Dartington)Short Mat Bowls Club currently play in one of your halls at Foxhole on two nights a week. As it is an ideal retirement game will we be allowed to continue there in the new complex.

Count me in – as an ex Foxholer I can’t think of a better use for the buildings (except as a progressive schoole, of course) Do let me know what I can do to add support.

Are these for sale or rent?
And if rent what will be the criteria for renting? Is a it housing co-op?

Please would you keep me up to date with any developments.

My wife and I have had a lot of experience in life-style changes. She was a volunteer Admin Officer at TS xxxxxxxx, Plymouth for 12 years and subsequently became a School Governor when we moved to North Cornwall. I served as a Parish Cpouncillor for 12 years including 6 as Chairman. I audit the accounts for four local charities and voluntarily have prepared and submitted plans for local people and organisations. I have subscribed to Resurgence for many years. In 1993 we obtained Planning Consent for the conversion of a Repo Nursing Home to ten affordable homes. I feel that our past experiences, particularly failures, could be of value. We would very much like to retire, but keep to keep involved.
I have approached three eco-village projects online. One claimed to offer total inclusivity provided the applicant was a vegan, another relied on daily chanting for spiritual wellbeing. I visited the third project, but came away with some concerns regarding the structure.
We are most interested in sustainable transport, particularly aircars, building in 50/50 sawdust and mud blocks, highly energy efficient homes from sawmill waste.
Abundant Life sounds very interesting and would be most pleased to learn more, and would welcome an exchange od ideas.

The Dartington Hall Trust is a registered charity no. 279756. Company no. 1485560. Registered Office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL United Kingdom. Telephone 01803 847000; Fax 01803 847007;