Agroforestry pioneer in bid to save garden

The Agroforestry Research Trust wants to buy its pioneering garden from landowner the Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) following the latter's shock decision to end a long term tenancy. 

The garden, near Totnes in Devon, has a global reputation as a pioneer in agroforestry, a method of growing both trees and food on the same piece of land in a way that can be both more productive, profitable and conserve natural resources compared with monoculture farming. 

Martin Crawford, its founder, has been nurturing the garden for more than 30 years. The garden is used for training, with courses on forest gardening, growing nuts and plant propagation. 

Security

Crawford is uncertain what would happen to the gardens if he has to move from the site. “We have no idea if they would sell it to someone else. We have to assume the worst - that it wouldn’t continue as a forest garden. 

“The garden is the result of 31 years of work. The whole point of a forest garden is to recreate an ecosystem that self-manages, but using plants that are of direct use to us. You can't just start picking it apart - it's an integrated ecosystem, everything's linked up,” he says. 

It is open for the public to visit, inspiring people who want to use more ecological-based planting, forest gardens, and perennial crops. It also conducts research on long-term carbon storage in soils and the trees, some of which are now 20m high.

But last week, Crawford received an email from the DHT serving him one year’s notice on his tenancy. This came "out of the blue", tacked onto an email about other issues, he said. 

“It was fairly incredible,” he said. However, the trust has since apologised for the way the email was written, he said. He met with Robert Fedder, the interim chief executive at DHT, Nick Harris, the chief operations officer, and Lord David Triesman, the chair of trustees, just last week. 

“We had a good meeting last Wednesday. They seemed conciliatory, and also seem to want to sort this out quite quickly. But from our perspective, that means selling us the site, because that's the only way we feel we'll have security in perpetuity,” he said. 

Crawford does not yet know how much the trust would want for the land. “It’s two acres of agricultural land, so in theory, it’s not valued that highly. 

"In practice, they will probably want quite a lot more than the market value for it because the Dartington Trust is very short of money, and that’s why this has happened. Their priority is to save money at the cost of almost anything else,” he said. 

However, the DHT said that it was not planning to evict Crawford, nor does it plan to sell the site to him, or anyone else. 

In a statement to The Ecologist, DHT said: “The original communication to Martin was not agreed or authorised by DHT management. When the news broke, we immediately urged him to get in touch to discuss, but in the four days that followed he devoted his energies instead to starting a campaign - a campaign which has been overtaken by events, in terms of our discussions."

It also stated that the garden was next to, rather than part of, the plot being occupied by a new tenant. “The tenant wasn't going to be able to do anything with it,” it said. "We have had constructive and productive discussions with Martin over the past week. Eviction was not on the agenda and is not the intention," it said.

According to the statement, the DHT's objective was to agree "a physical solution for making the boundary of the forest garden secure and safe, to meet the needs of a prospective tenant for the larger adjoining site of the former college", and it was working with Crawford on this. 

"We understand Martin’s concern about the security of his lease and occupancy. He has already gained a legal opinion telling him he has good security of tenure, but we appreciate that he wants to discuss this further. That is a longer term conversation. It will not, however, include the sale of the plot to ART, or to any other party."

Refuted 

Crawford refuted the DHT’s statement. He had only one meeting with DHT last week, followed up this week by a letter from Lord Triesman that did not offer any long-term security for the site.

“DHT has not rescinded its notice to quit. Whether it does so or not is now irrelevant as our lease runs out in just over three years in any case – this is not good security of tenure,” Crawford said in a statement to The Ecologist. 

“From our perspective any agreement to ‘a physical solution’, meaning fencing, to satisfy the Special Educational Needs school interested in taking over the ex-Schumacher College buildings is inextricably linked to DHT coming forward with a solution giving us long term security of tenure. 

"We have written to David Triesman making this point and publicly call on DHT to see sense and come to an agreement on this,” he said. 

Survival

The Dartington Estate had been set up as a centre of creative innovation since it was bought by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst in 1925. 

Considered innovative thinkers of their time, they began to explore how a place could change the world – attracting artists, educators and political philosophers including Jacqueline du Pré, Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, T E Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’), HG Wells, James Lovelock, Amory Lovins and Jonathon Porritt.

They restored the estate’s buildings and land and carried out ground-breaking experiments in land use, farming and education. The DHT was established in 1932 to oversee the Elmhirst’s charitable work. 

But the charity is now struggling for its own survival. Its annual accounts for the year ending August 2023 was filed with the Charity Commission eight months late – a delay caused by “the complexity and scale of our present financial and operational restructuring,” according to the statement from Lord Triesman. 

DHT suffered operating loss of £4.53m, according to the accounts. It received £13.85m from its activities, while it spent a total of £18.38m. 

High-profile

The trusts’ turnaround strategy is aimed at securing a sustainable future for Dartington Estate, “which is not dependent on a perennial combination of disposals, unpredictable benefaction and hope,” he wrote. “While the Trust is a registered charity, our status is not a charter to make continual losses,” he added.

The COVID pandemic, war in Ukraine and cost of living crisis had all contributed to the Trust’s financial problems, which had ‘plunged it into survival mode’, he wrote, meaning it could no longer subsidise ‘a preponderance of loss-making events, enterprises and initiatives” offered by the trust.

A note from the independent auditor of the accounts stated that there was "a material uncertainty… on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern".

In August 2024, Schumacher College, which ran ecology-centred degree programmes, short courses and horticultural programmes and has been supported by DHT since 1991, discontinued its degree awarding courses with immediate effect after being notice on its tenancy. The college was located on the Dartington Estate, next to Crawford’s garden. 

A statement by DHT at the time said: “Schumacher College continues to incur substantial monthly losses and Dartington is unable to underwrite this deficit indefinitely from its limited reserves.”

Energies

The DHT’s turnaround plan, detailed in its accounts, included “reviewing occupancy across the estate…. and attracting landmark tenants onto the estate”.

The Charity Commission has opened regulatory compliance case on the DHT. A step below a formal investigation, these type of cases focus on ensuring that trustees address any failures in the management of the charity. A spokesperson said: “We continue to engage with trustees of the Dartington Hall Trust as part of an ongoing regulatory compliance case.”

A petition set up by students at the University of Sussex to save the garden and asking the DHT to change its mind has now attracted almost 28,000 signatures. The support has been "amazing, and very positive for us to receive", Crawford said. 

Public support, including high-profile figures in the horticulture and ecology world such as Sir Ghillean Prance, a former director of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex and bee expert.

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for The Ecologist. Find her on Bluesky @catearly.bsky.social. The Ecologist is owned and published by The Resurgence Trust. Satish Kumar is the founder and a member of the management team of the Resurgence Trust. He is also the founder of Schumacher College, until recently also a long term tenant of the Dartington Hall Trust, which is now reemerging as Schumacher Wild.