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The Dartington Hall collection, held in The South West Film & Television Archive, features two very different strands of moving image: strand one being shot by a cameraman employed by the Dartington Hall Estate recording its own life, strand two being educational films. The strands are equally important, but demonstrate a difference in techniques and interest. This collection includes a number of films that recorded the variety of daily activities employed on the Dartington estate and farm. They captured moving images of both traditional and modern farming methods, including dry-stone walling, haystack making, hedge making, bee keeping, loom work, and early dairy sterilising methods. The films are a record of rural techniques and pursuits but also show the then new techniques of silage making and an interest in the science of farming (the collection includes a visit to Russia in the mid 1930s to examine battery farming of chickens). Many of the activities covered include rarely filmed subjects making this material all the more valuable as a record of day to day practices in farming and farm maintenance. The collection also reflects Dartington Hall’s interest in establishing new types of businesses in rural areas, following on from a belief that the numbers of people involved in farming would decline sharply from the 1930s onward. This clip shows production at the Dartington sawmills and the commentary describes how these and other industries at Dartington were developed to provide farm workers with different opportunities, and to reduce unemployment in the South Devon area. Dartington Hall School was producing educational and natural history films from the early 1930s. An early notable success was David Lack’s film study of the Galapagos Islands, however, most of the films were rooted in more local concerns e.g. the Somerset Peat Industry. The films were distributed across the UK and widely used for teaching. Little of the Dartington Film Unit's material has survived (the Archive holds 7 complete films) but Dartington Hall has maintained an interest in film and now houses one of the two regional film theatres for the South West. Many other films in The South West Film & Television Archive collection cover agricultural and rural industries from the region, such as documentary footage following life on an isolated Dartmoor farm - 'Peter & Ruby' (1970s); a programme on traditional cider brewing - 'The Cider Makers' (1970) along with many others. |
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