DOROTHY ELMHIRST: GARDENS

TPH/10/002/011/002: Children's playhouse and Valley Field
in early morning (Photo: James Ravilious, 1986) Collection: Papers of Dorothy Whitney Elmhirst
Level: Series
RefNo: DWE/GN
Extent: 2 boxes
Title: DWE Gardens
Date: 1925-1972

Description: Dorothy Elmhirst's personal papers relating to the Dartington Hall Gardens. Includes correspondence with landscape designers, professional gardeners and horticulturists, including L S Fortescue of The Garden House, Buckland Monachorum; Michael Haworth-Booth; Edward Hyams; Dartington Hall Gardens superintendents; Lanning Roper; Constance Spry; and H Avray Tipping.

Records of the work of landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand includes correspondence and notes on planting schemes, garden design, and an article and obituary for her written by Dorothy Elmhirst. Other correspondents include Max Farrand. There are also published scholarly papers on Beatrix Jones Farrand's work at Dartington Hall.

Correspondence, notes, and minutes record work with landscape designer, Percy Cane. Archival records show consultation with Cane and detail his work on the immediate surrounds of the Hall and its gardens, from 1945 until shortly before his death. Planting schemes for other areas at Dartington are also included. A notebook kept by Leonard Elmhirst documents Cane's visits in 1970 and 1971.

Photographs of the gardens date from the late Victorian period to the present day.

There is also a complete set of Dorothy Elmhirst's garden notebooks and diaries.

For more information see our online catalogue reference DWE/GN