T Dartington Hall School

DATE: 1925-1987

LEVEL: Series

Description: Archival records of an independent, progressive boarding school at Dartington Hall. Record media include Senate and Moot minutes, scrapbooks and photographs, films and videos, and student publications. There are extensive files of press cuttings about the school.

Many unpublished, critical evaluations of the school have been preserved. There are also records of educational survey research by school administrators and staff, and records of exchange programs with schools in other communities. The correspondence of headmasters including William B Curry, Hubert and Lois Child, and Dr Royston Lambert, has also been saved. Owing to the lengthy notice time given by most headmasters, there is considerable overlap of records from one subseries to the next.

Most School administrative records dating prior to 1974 are currently open for research and are listed in the online catalogue. This material includes letters of Marjorie Wise and Wyatt Rawson, Bill Curry's letters and reports to the Trust, letters and reports from advisors including Eduard Lindeman, H N Brailsford, Ruth Morgan, and Dr F G Bonser of Teachers College, Columbia, and extensive correspondence with others interested in alternative education including A S Neill, and Dora and Bertrand Russell.

The Papers of Dorothy Elmhirst held by the Dartington Hall Trust Archive also include School records.

Detailed administrative histories and descriptions will be found at the subseries level in the online catalogue. The most recent 30 years of records are closed. Data protection guidelines regulate access to individual student and personnel information. Follow this link for further information on accessing pupil records. Former students and staff may be interested in the website of the Dartington Hall School.
The series is divided into 11 subseries as follows:

A) The Early School, 1926-1931; search T/DHS/A
B) William Burnlee Curry Papers, 1931-1957; T/DHS/B
C) Hu and Lois Child, 1957-1968; T/DHS/C
D) Royston Lambert, 1968-1973; T/DHS/D
E) John Wightwick, 1973-1983; T/DHS/E
F) Lyn Blackshaw, 1983; T/DHS/F
G) Eric Adams and Roger Tilbury, 1983-1985; T/DHS/G
H) Brian Nicholson, 1985-1987; T/DHS/H
I) Additions, 1927-1987; T/DHS/I
J) Postern Programme, 1957-1980; T/DHS/J
K) School Publications and Printed Material, 1927-1987; T/DHS/K.

Dartington Hall School opened in September 1926. It closed in 1987 due to declining enrolment and mounting financial losses. In its earlier days especially Dartington was one of the foremost progressive boarding schools. The School was a leader in coeducation, the absence of corporal punishment and uniforms, student self-governance, and the pupil-defined curriculum; much of this is generally accepted characteristics of education in 21st century Britain.

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