T Adult Education

DATE: 1927-1986

LEVEL: Series

Records of adult education programmes at Dartington Hall and in the village of Dartington. Includes Sunday evening meetings correspondence of Dorothy Elmhirst and William B Curry with guest lecturers. Lecturers were drawn from London, from the professional lecture circuit, and often from the local community. Lectures sometimes consisted of concerts or music programmes.

Additionally there are records of domestic science courses; and short courses held for southwest teachers between 1928-1933 organised by J J Draper. These courses were held at the Old Parsonage hostel.

Reports of Marjorie Wise and the Rural Extension Department reflect concern over the reorganisation of county school systems and the consequent distancing of rural children from rural life. In effect, this was an an attempt to steer people away from towns and their influence. There are also original records of Wise's survey of village schools in 1930 published as 'English Village Schools' by the Hogarth Press, 1931. These surveys provide individual descriptions of named Devon village primary schools.

Later records document the growth of the Dartington Social Centre, the Adult Education Centre, the Shinners Bridge Centre, and the Youth Club at Meadowbrook, now the Dartington Community Centre.

Adult education at Dartington started as a result of the communal confluence of educationalists brought to the estate by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. Early goals included the training of youth apprentices for work on the estate, and the provision of a domestic science course for girls. A regular series of Sunday events was established under the direction of Dorothy Elmhirst and William B Curry, and these continued from 1931 until 1948. Sunday Evening Meetings as they were known brought in lecturers and performers from Europe and America.

J J Draper organised short courses for rural teachers between 1928 and 1933. Marjorie Wise established a short lived Rural School Extension Department and studied village schools in Devon in 1930. Formal adult education classes were organised for estate workers and apprentices in 1933 and these continued until 1939. Subjects ranged from plumbing to economics. Foxhole was leased to the Fabian Summer Schools each August during World War II, providing a Socialist base for adult education. Also during World War II, the Dartington Social Centre was established.

After the War, Alan Milton was appointed as the head of the new Adult Education Centre in 1947. It was based at Shinners Bridge on land donated by the Trust. Dartington Hall School staff and other experts on the estate taught classes in a variety of practical and academic subjects. Membership rose to a high of about 200 within a few years. Cecil Chapman replaced Alan Milton in 1951, although Milton had by then handed over the organisation of the classes to his assistant, Charles Honeker. He was in turn replaced by Ivor Weeks who brought a renewed emphasis on art, combining his role with one at Dartington College of Arts. In the 1960s and 1970s, space was provided at the Cider Press for craft education classes. In 1971 Ivor Weeks elected to work full-time with Dartington College of Arts and was succeeded by Pamela Montgomery and in 1973 by Paul Oliver, both of whom undertook a combined role at the A E C and the College.

In 1974 the Centre became known as the Adult Education Department under the management of Iris Allison, who continued in that role until 1986 when the department came under the control of the Devon Centre for Further Education and was managed part-time by Jim Corben. The department was renamed the Craft Education Centre in 1988, coming under the control of Brian Nicholson.

In 1949, a Youth Club was established and built by the Trust at Meadowbrook in the late 1960s and this facility has grown into the present Dartington Community Centre.

(For more information see Victor Bonham-Carter's Report to the Trustees; Dartington Hall 1925-56 and his First Supplement to the Main Report 1956-65; also his essays written in the mid 1990s).

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