Commerce: Grounds and Gardens

DATE: 1928-1998

LEVEL: SubFonds

The papers mainly cover the commercial activities of the Grounds and Gardens Department, as opposed to those of an amenity and educational nature, and also include the Greencrops department.

Subjects in the earlier material include the appointment of R Stewart Lynch as Manager of the Gardens Department; Dartington nurseries; reports, including visits by W K Slater, Managing Director, Dartington Hall Ltd to other nurseries; trading sales and stock lists; contract work and landscaping, including Connaught Gardens, Sidmouth; meetings; photography; education; publicity, including the Gardens Catalogue of 1935; awards, including at the Chelsea Flower Show; personnel; the Greencrops department and the South Devon Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association. Other managers of the nurseries mentioned in the material are H Jeffery, T Roper, H Allen and F Frost.

The later period from 1968 covers contract work and landscaping under the supervision of Gardens Superintendent Terry L Underhill and includes work for The Dartington Hall Trust at the Hunters Moon housing estate and the Cider Press Centre; for Wimpey Construction UK Limited at Teign Park, Chudleigh Knighton; and for individual properties.

The material consists of correspondence; minutes of meetings; press cuttings; booklets, including catalogues; reports; plant lists; record books; plans; photographs, negatives and glass plates.

R Stewart Lynch was appointed Gardens Superintendent in 1928. In 1934 with a reorganisation of the department, which separated out the Hall Gardens, Lynch became Manager of the Gardens Department. This department concentrated on plants, shrubs, and landscape work off the estate, thus emphasising its commercial role. A competent photographer, Lynch took a series of plates showing the progress of building development on the estate as well as the work of his own department.

The Gardens department exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show in the 1930s and others with great distinction, and built up a considerable business. An illustrated gardens catalogue was produced in 1935 on the 18 May, a few days before the Chelsea Flower Show. By January 1936, 4724 catalogues had been distributed, and of these 4006 had been paid for.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the department converted to the production of market garden crops in 1940.

Four nurseries were maintained under Lynch: Huxhams Cross, Symons Tree, Dartington Lane, and Bovey Tracey. Lynch retired in 1943 and a market gardens committee set up by F H Wadhams controlled the department, until H Jeffery was appointed manager, although the unit at Bovey Tracey had been let off to a tenant in 1942.

T Roper took over in 1945, combining the management of the department with that of Greencrops and the Estate Shop. At the same time Symons Tree Nursery was transferred to the Dartington Hall School.

In 1948 H Allen took over the department. In 1951 it was renamed the Market Gardens Department, and the Dartington Lane Nursery was let off before being allocated to the Farms Department in 1956. The management of Huxhams Cross Nursery went to F Frost in 1951and on his retirement in 1957, this remaining nursery was let off to a tenant.

The Greencrops department is reported to have been formed in 1935 and its job was to sell the fruit and vegetables grown on the estate. The intention was for it to build up a sales outlet for the anticipated increased production from company departments, to establish a standard system of grading and packing and to eliminate competition between departments. A collecting and packing station was also set up at Dartington in 1936 for the local fruit and vegetable growers, initially supported by Devon County Council, Marks and Spencers, and local farmers and growers.

During 1943 Dartington Greencrops sponsored the formation of the South Devon Fruit and Vegetables Growers Association. Despite problems, by 1947 the Greencrops department was at that time operating successfully, but eventually was closed in 1954.

In later years contract work and landscaping advice was carried out by the Grounds and Gardens department under the management of Terry L Underhill who was appointed in 1964, both for The Dartington Hall Trust and privately.

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