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DARTINGTON HALL HISTORICAL RECORDS
'Now the boundaries of this small estate are these. First the elder trees by the river then to a wall dyke, then through a row to the middle of delesburg, then to cylburg, then to the bottom of the hill, then to a dyke and to the old enclosure, then along this enclosure to a thorn tree to hacggenham, then to a fence and straight on the oak, then east over melenbrook and then to the post and east to the elders by the river.' Earliest description of Dartington, 833 AD
History: Dartington is the manor seat of an ancient estate that extended from the parish boundary of Totnes to the parish of Rattery including about 15 farms south of the Dart River yielding tenant rents twice a year, on Lady Day and Michaelmas. In addition to farm rents, the estate included many stone quarries, lime kilns, and woodlands providing further income. The present buildings comprising Dartington Hall itself date from 1388 when the estate was given to John Holand, the half brother of Richard II. The manor buildings were originally much larger but parts of Dartington were demolished, and an Elizabethan house was built within the late medieval buildings by members of the Champernowne family who acquired Dartington manor in 1559.
Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst, the founders of modern Dartington, purchased the estate from Arthur Champernowne in 1925. Leonard was a Cambridge-trained historian and as the new owner of a partly derelict medieval palace, employed researchers to seek out manuscripts mentioning the estate and its owners through the centuries. In 1929, John Benson was hired to research and compile notes on the history of Dartington, particularly the life and times of John Holand, the Earl of Huntingdon and Duke of Exeter who was executed in 1400.
Leonard employed other researchers in the 1930s including John Scanes who transcribed three volumes of 16th century Dartington churchwarden accounts then preserved at the Exeter City Library. Only one of Scanes' volumes has survived. Other historians employed included Victor Bonham-Carter who was affiliated with Dartington for many years, arranging the Trust Archive and writing the first history of the Dartington Hall experiment. The Trustees also supported Dartington history research and publications by medieval architecture specialist Anthony Emery. Architect John Harvey provided historical advice and criticism.
Many of these experts disagreed on the meaning of the archaeological record at Dartington, especially the plan of lost buildings which may have formed a second courtyard to the south of the Great Hall. There is also debate over the terraced tournament ground in the Gardens, which was thought by Leonard to be a tiltyard dating from the time of John Holand (a notorious jouster), but is more probably a garden feature extending formality into the naturalistic Devon landscape.
Description: Records accumulated by the Dartington Hall Trust documenting the history of the Dartington estate and its owners. Most of the papers are those of historians, architects, and archaeologists employed by the Trust to investigate Dartington's history. In addition there is correspondence with architect William Weir who supervised the restoration of the medieval Great Hall; architecture historian John Harvey; genealogist Charlotte Champernowne; correspondence with Devon historians including John Scanes and John Benson; and extensive research records of historian Anthony Emery who published a book on Dartington Hall in 1970.
Records of archaeological excavations at Dartington include those of Colin Platt in 1962, who directed a team excavating the south lawn at Dartington Hall in association with Emery; resistivity and other geophysical surveys to 2005; and excavations in the Hall Gardens and at old Church of St Mary, Dartington.
Genealogical information concentrates on the Holand and Champernowne families.
Correspondence with Anthony Emery is perhaps most significant. The series includes Emery's correspondence, research and notes, publications on the history of Dartington and related medieval buildings, drafts of Emery's 1965 dissertation, 'Dartington Hall: A Family and Architectural History and Survey'; and 4 manuscript boxes containing typed transcriptions and translations of early records mentioning Dartington and its families. There is also a box of Victor Bonham-Carter's records of his work at Dartington.
Lastly, the series includes original Champernowne family manorial records including an indenture for Harlow Mills, Essex (1650s); a Dartington parish farm account ledger dating from the 1700s; Estate accounts and receipts, 1744-1845; tenant farmer rent charges, 1839; records of tenant distraints and distresses (forced sales) with inventories of tenants' personal and farm property in Dartington, 1810-1835; and indentures for land at Ilsington, Devon, 1705-1774.
The majority of the original records of the Dartington Hall estate, during the period of Champernowne family ownership (1559-1925), are preserved and can be viewed at the Devon Record Office.
The Dartington Hall Trust is a registered charity no. 279756. Company no. 1485560
Registered Office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL United Kingdom.
Telephone 01803 847000; Fax 01803 847007;