Commerce: Dartington Hall Ltd

DATE: 1929-1980

LEVEL: SubFonds

Records of Dartington Hall Ltd, a private company incorporated for the charitable purposes of research and rural development, and established to manage commercial activity on the Dartington Hall estate. Records are divided into 3 principal subseries:

1. Records from 1927 to 1945;
2. Later Company Records (from 1946 onwards);
3. Dartington Hall Ltd Minute Books and Accounts.

With the exception of minute books, the records of Dartington Hall Ltd currently end in 1965, and many of the records of Peter Sutcliffe, general manager after 1946, are said to have been destroyed. However, the company continued to serve as the management and holding company for Dartington Hall commercial enterprises until 1980. At that time the Trustees formed a private charitable company limited by guarantee, The Dartington Hall Trust Ltd which assumed control of the assets of Dartington Hall Ltd. Dartington commercial activities were thus brought more directly under the control of the Trustees. In 1982 the name (The Dartington Hall Trust Ltd) was legally changed to The Dartington Hall Trust, the present company for commercial and charitable enterprise organised at or through Dartington.

As the central administration for Dartington commercial activities, Dartington Hall Ltd managed departments including Textiles, Orchards and the Cider Press, the farms, the crafts studio and craft shop, Poultry, and Forestry; all managed from the Central Office building. Non-profit departments reporting to Dartington Hall Ltd included the Dartington Laboratory and the Agricultural Economics Department.

Records include early documents on organisation; management reports; correspondence of senior personnel especially that of William K Slater; advertising and marketing records; sales reports; financial information and minutes.

Records of a private limited liability company chartered in July 1929 with a share capital of £65,000, and alloted as to 1 share to F A S Gwatkin and 64,999 shares to Leonard Elmhirst. In 1931 the shares were turned over to the Dartington Hall Trust. The company was originally formed to try out the experiment of operating in a rural area a profitable trading company, controlling both farms and factories and offering favourable conditions of employment to employees. [See: the memorandum on the reorganisation of Dartington Hall Limited, February 1939 C/DHL/1/C].

Leonard Elmhirst wrote in his personal notebook 'On the Aims of the Estate Experiment at Dartington by Dartington Hall Ltd' [LKE/G/S17/C];

1. The establishing of a reasonable standard of life for all those employed by the Company by paying a reasonable remuneration for services, and at the same time to earn a reasonable interest on all money invested.

2.The linking up of the worker's own interest and intelligence with his work so that his job may mean far more to him than a mere earning of a living. Achievement here may only be measured by the extent to which everyone working on the place adopts an attitude of research towards his work.

3.The establishing, in co-operation with the Education Committee, of opportunity for intelligent use of leisure whether through recreation, games, craft, garden, workshop, educational research, activities, or self expression through music, drama, dance etc.

The company's first officers included Leonard Elmhirst as chairman and Dr William K Slater as managing director. Eric S Porter succeeded Douglas E R Watson as secretary and accountant in 1930. Other directors included management consultant Frederick Lawrence and M C Spencer.

Each department was set up on an experimental basis with the hope, and later the expectation, that the departments would generate a profit which would be reinvested to promote rural regeneration. In practice very few of the departments were capable of making more than a small annual profit. In consequence, the company was re-capitalised in 1936. Staverton Builders, the old Works department, was split off as a separate company. The remaining departments were forced to make money or cease operations. In February 1939, the company was again reorganised, the resignation of all employees was received (and the workers were then rehired under employment conditions more favourable to the company). But the severe losses of 1936 to 1939 were stemmed only by the booming market conditions of WW II.

In 1943 W K Slater was seconded to the national Agricultural Improvement Committee. He resigned in 1945 and Peter Sutcliffe was hired as general manager. In the difficult conditions of the postwar years the company resumed its pattern of loss making, however it was employing hundreds of people, in a variety of rural-based crafts and industries, and providing good wages and retirement benefits and this may be seen as a great success.

For further information see Dartington Hall 1925-56: A Report on The Company, by Victor Bonham-Carter.

Information for Researchers

All papers belonging to The Dartington Hall Trust Archive (with the exclusion of Dartington Hall School pupils individual records) are held at the Devon Record Office. All enquiries relating to research should be made to Devon Records Office, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7NL
+44 (0)1392 384253
+44 (0)1392 384256
devrec@devon.gov.uk
www.devon.gov.uk/record_office

The following requests should be made direct to the Archives & Records at The Dartington Hall Trust as shown below:
Copies of images as seen on The Dartington Hall Trust online catalogue with appropriate reference number (Ref No.)
Permission to publish or quote from any document held in the Dartington Hall Trust Archive
Former pupils of Dartington Hall School wishing to view their records
Archives & Records
The Dartington Hall Trust
Dartington Hall
Totnes TQ9 6EL
01803 847200
yvonne.widger@dartington.org

This information is copyright The Dartington Hall Trust