Welcome to the business of regenerating our landscape
Our approach to pioneering sustainable land use is bringing the countryside back to life with a richness of innovation and enterprise.
Our vision is a vibrant landscape of interconnected business and enterprise, of healthy and productive soils and woodland, and an abundant and fulfilling quality of life for all.
We attract, support and promote small-scale, innovative and financially-viable ventures that put people and enterprise back on the land and build a robust and resilient local economy that will provide prosperity for the long term.
Operating from the Dartington Estate, the experimental heart of generating and applying new ideas, in Devon, England, we have scope to host a range of small scale sustainable businesses and experimental and demonstration projects.
We aim to work with a growing network of landowner partners across the country, through which new sustainable business models can be promoted in order to proliferate and have maximum impact.
If you share our vision, like our approach and see how you could be involved – either as a prospective entrepreneur, landowner, investor or educator – we would love to hear from you.
Current Landscope Projects include…
Pioneer Paul Macdonald and his team are establishing a carbon and waste-neutral integrated wood business. A saw mill will sit at the heart of the operation which aims to supply local markets with quality, affordable, locally-sourced timber products, including biomass fuel made from the timber mill waste.
The whole operation aims to be fuelled by its own waste. Still under construction, the saw mill will be housed in a purpose-built, straw-bale building – the largest of its kind – thereby minimising sound emissions to such an extent that it will sit comfortably in close proximity to a residential area and remote parts of the peaceful Dartington Estate. Read more…
Forest School, delivered by national education providers On Track Education Services is a groundbreaking approach to outdoor learning and education using woodland sites on the Dartington Estate as the classroom.
Young people who have been unable to sustain full-time educational placements in mainstream settings learn creative and practical outdoor skills as part of a programme of personal development that builds, among other qualities, trust, confidence, a sense of self-worth, and an appreciation of other people and the environment. Participants are also able to gain nationally recognized accreditation from exam board AQA under their Unit Award Scheme programme. Read more…
“Cornwall’s College of the Countryside” has come to Devon with a mission to further realise the education potential of Dartington Estate and the region with its Rural Business School. The potential impact of all the Landscope projects is significantly enhanced by this relationship which enables structured learning packages around our culture of land-based innovation and sustainability, and a potential avenue for dissemination and replication of our successes. Read more…
The Tanner Bates Leatherwork Studio and Classroom has recently started at Dartington through Landscope and are based at Old School Farm. John Hagger who runs the business and courses is a third generation leatherworker, trained in Walsall, England. John leads weekend courses and evening classes such as Traditional Leatherwork Skills from the studio.
Taking over some abandoned premises, pioneer Nick Gooderham and partners are bringing new life to glasshouses, poly-tunnels and a small acreage on the Dartington Estate.
This ambitious horticultural project is based on a ‘minimum tillage’ approach to growing, and is working towards organic certification. Engaging local people as volunteers and customers, the operation has already become an established part of the local food supply and community infrastructure, and an important part in the Estate’s strategy to relocalise food production. It also serves contracts with local florists, reducing their dependence on imports. Read more…
Moor Trees is a Devon-based woodland charity, working with local people to create and restore native woodland. They have established a tree nursery at Dartington which also provides a base for furthering their additional aims of building social cohesion through volunteering and providing high quality education and training. Read more…
Run in partnership with Transition Town Totnes, Estates in Transition was designed as a one-off event to stimulate debate among estates across the Westcountry, exploring the challenges and opportunities presented by the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change, with a view to developing suitable responses and action. Read more…
