Commerce: Textiles

DATE: 1926-1971

LEVEL: SubFonds

Records documenting the management of the Textile Department under Dartington Hall Ltd, including records relating to the expansion and reorganisation of the department into a building designed by Oswald Milne. The series includes records relating to textile mills at Shinners Bridge, Dartington; and East Mill, Fordingbridge, Hants, together with progress reports, policy and research programme records. There are also records of Dartington Hall Tweeds (with some samples). There are minutes of the Textile Mill Committee meetings and of the Textile Department Management Committee. Administrative correspondence concerns staff and maintenance matters, plant and equipment, production, sales, and export reports.

Records of managers of the Textile Department include those of founder Heremon (Toby) Fitzpatrick; Hiram Hague Winterbotham; Fred Todkill; and Gunnar Storvik.

Books list staff and productivity and include existing hand coloured designs for floor rug patterns on graph paper. In 1932 a representative from I G Farben spent several months at Dartington working on dyeing methods, and five boxes of the series contain records and published material produced by I G Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft. Material includes dyeing charts with samples of wool attached and detailed handwritten notes and observations, and colour handbooks.

The Textile Department at Dartington Hall was founded in April 1927 by Heremon Fitzpatrick. He aimed to set up a small woollen mill with machinery and a small staff, spinning and supplying yarn to his weavers, and finishing and marketing cloth. Fitzpatrick hoped to combine the advantages of hand and machine in order to economically produce cloth of the best quality. As established, the department was composed of research and commercial divisions, the former to investigate methods of dyeing, spinning and weaving to produce superlative quality in design, colour and texture. The estate Laboratory gave help in finding and testing local plants suitable for producing vegetable dyes.

Fitzpatrick kept in close contact with weaver Ethel Mairet of Ditchling, and Elizabeth Peacock (who designed and wove the banners in the Great Hall at Dartington).

In 1930, further enquiries into dyeing were made with the laboratories of ICI at Manchester and Grangemouth. In 1932 Fitzpatrick obtained the help of the German company I G Farbenindustrie, to find the best aniline and vat dyes. I G Farben sent Herr Geisner who spent several months at Dartington teaching the technique of dyeing.

Initially the Textile Department was installed in the courtyard but in 1931 relocated to a purpose-built mill designed by Oswald Milne, on the Dartington estate at Shinners Bridge powered by water from Bidwell Brook.

It was hoped that full production would be achieved in 1933, but in fact output and revenue fell below expectation. Annual total was nearer 5,000 yards than 10,000. Also in this year, a Dartington sheep breeding experiment produced sufficient wool from two flocks of sheep (Welsh Mountain and Shetland Morit) to enable the Textile department to test and convert it to commercial use. Power looms were introduced to the textile department in 1937.

Fitzpatrick was succeeded by Hiram Hague Winterbotham who overhauled production methods and placed the mill upon a more secure business footing, rationalising the purchase of wool and increasing production. Trade consisted of tweeds for manufacturing and bespoke tailors and a few fashion houses, and of furnishing fabrics for department stores including Marks and Spencer. Winterbotham left Dartington in 1939, and his deputy Fred Todkill took over.

The Textile Department struggled in the early years of WWII due to the rationing of wool. Conditions gradually improved, mainly due to the introduction of the Utility scheme, and strong wartime demand for all textile goods. Production was switched almost exclusively to the manufacture of cloth for ladies tweeds.

By the end of the war the department was making small but consistent profits, and by 1951 had been reorganised over two sites using Fordingbridge as a carding and spinning plant, and Dartington as a weaving and finishing plant. Equipped with nine power looms, Dartington also remained the headquarters for administration and sales. Fred Todkill left Dartington in 1954 to be replaced by Gunnar Storvik in 1955.The upper textile mill opened in 1956. A large shed next to the sawmill, formerly the grass-drying station of the Milk Marketing Board, was converted for use by the textile department.

The Dartington Textile Department closed in the early 1980s.

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