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The Gardens
In his famous study "The English Garden" published in 1964, Edward Hyams gives pride of place to Dartington Hall.
"This is the kind of garden," he writes, "with which it is possible that today's and tomorrow's institutions, industrial, administrative, educational, even residential, could well surround themselves. It provides recreation not just for one man or one family but for a working community of people very much dans le siecle. In gardens like those at Dartington Hall the traditions of the great English gardens will, if at all, find their continuance."
Dorothy Elmhirst and her husband, Leonard, were ultimately concerned with the creation of the gardens from 1925, when they purchased the Dartington Hall estate, until their deaths in 1968 and 1974.
When they came here the grounds were neglected and overgrown with weeds. The shrubberies reflected Victorian taste, the tiltyard was a pattern of formal flower beds, but beneath the worn out surface lay an extraordinarily dramatic landscape setting - a coombe with terraces flowing into a wider river valley, whose folds drifted away southeastwards to the sea.
It became a matter of freeing the form of the gardens from entanglement; there was never any question of imposing a design upon the landscape. The contours of the land were used to intensify the natural effects of height, depth and distance. Trees and shrubs were introduced to give structure to the compositions, lawns to emphasise space, evergreens to provide interest and texture through the winter.
The great trees planted by the Champernowne family, owners of the estate for centuries before the Elmhirsts came, were cleared of undergrowth so that they might stand out in all their grandeur, and vistas were opened up to give greater sweep to distant views and to link the garden with the countryside beyond.
Dorothy Elmhirst had a large hand in the choice of plant materials, especially so in the years following the last war when much of the filling in of the basic design was accomplished. She also had an extensive knowledge and love of trees, shrubs and plants, but to carry the work through she and Leonard had relied on professional help from both sides of the Atlantic.
Most celebrated among their consultants was the American garden designer Beatrix Farrand who became involved in 1933, by which time the tiltyard had already been cleared and turned to its first use as an open-air theatre. Mrs Farrand brought order to the Courtyard and designed the cobbled drive that circles the central lawn, overcoming problems presented by awkward ground levels. The following year she began opening the garden out by creating paths and connecting links. Three Woodland walks were laid out and planted using Yew, Bay and broadleaved Hollies as background material for a rich variety of camellias, magnolias and rhododendrons.
Her successor after the war was Percy Cane, in those days among the most fashionable of British landscape designers. It was his idea to cut through the overgrown upper area and free new vistas. The Glade is his work, also the long, uncompromising flight of steps below, leading to the lower end of the tiltyard. He also cleared High Meadow, designed the new entrance drive, remade the upper road and planted the Azalea Dell.
Other schemes were suggested by the Elmhirsts' gardening friends. To the plant expert Will Arnold-Foster, for example. Dartington owes the group of Tai Haku cherries by the White Hart kitchen, the choice of Hupeh Crab, Malus hupehensis for High Meadow, and the placing of the three Judas trees on the bowling green. As important has been the devotion of the various head gardeners and their staff from P.W. Woods and David Calthorpe who worked under the direction of Beatrix Farrand to their modem counterparts, Terry Underhill and his successor as gardens superintendent, Graham Gammin.
No garden under active cultivation is likely to achieve a final form and each year Dartington undergoes changes. Because of overcrowding, gale damage or the natural process of decay, beds, shrubs and plants must often be rooted out and new varieties introduced: in fact, so continual is the process that no written description can be exact. Remember also that this is not a garden of botanical specimens; it is one based on personal discrimination and, more importantly, one in which only those plants that seem to belong to the underlying colour, shape and texture of the landscape will be found.
The gardens, recognised as one of the finest in the country, contain a number of sculptural features. These include Willi Soukop's Bronze Donkey (1935) and granite Swan Fountain, and a reclining figure in Hornton stone by Henry Moore.
The gardens are maintained almost wholly by a grant from the Dartington hall Trust.
It is the wish of the Dartington Hall trustees that the gardens should remain open all year round without admission charge. For that to be possible visitors are asked to treat seriously the request for donations towards the cost of upkeep.
Tours of the gardens can be organised on request, please telephone (01803) 862367.
