[Diggers350] Petition - Dartington Hall eco-vandals nr Totnes, DON'T evict Martin Crawford!

Tony Gosling tony at cultureshop.org.uk
Sun Mar 16 02:09:13 GMT 2025 


Save the Dartington Forest Garden

This page is dedicated to our fight against our 
landlord’s (Dartington Hall Trust) decision to 
evict us from our 31-year-old forest garden in 
Dartington, Devon, UK. Here you’ll find latest 
updates and press releases, and also your 
tributes to the forest garden and what it means 
to you, and why it should be preserved.
https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/save-dartington-forest-garden/

[]


Go to 
<https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/save-dartington-forest-garden/#Messagesofsupport>Messages 
of Support
Sat 15 March 2025
Thanks for the great messages of support we’ve received since yesterday!

Our landlord Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) has 
publically justified their decision with 
legalistic half truths which need picking apart 
.

They have said that as a charity they are duty 
bound to maximise use of their resources – 
implying that they really had no choice in the matter.

This is untrue. Yes a charity has that duty, as 
one of many duties all charities have – the most 
important of which are acting in a way to achieve 
its aims. Any decision has to weigh up these 
duties and is a subjective value judgment made by those in charge.

In this case DHT have chosen to ignore their aims 
to support sustainable / ecological land use and 
to support innovative entrepeneurs and act like 
those stated aims are in fact meaningless hot air.

So to claim they have no choice is not true. They 
have choices as we all do. And they may have made 
a wrong one, even fiscally here: they have judged 
that by bundling the forest garden with 
ex-schumacher college buildings they can make a 
“more attractive bundle” to a prospective tenant 
or buyer. I think the opposite may be true – who 
is going to want to be lumped with a forest 
garden they don’t know how to manage and with public criticism raining down?

And if the economic boycott of DHT’s in-house 
operations that some are calling for takes hold, 
there will be further fiscal failures to come.

Some of our supporters have set up a petition at 
change.org – see 
<https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-destruction-of-the-world-renowned-dartington-forest-garden>www.change.org/p/stop-the-destruction-of-the-world-renowned-dartington-forest-garden 
Thanks to the Sussex Forest Food Garden Society 
who are instrumental in running the Forest Food 
Garden at the University of Sussex.


Press release - 14th March 2025

Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) have given a years 
notice to end the lease for a groundbreaking 2 
acre food forest project which has been under way 
on the Dartington Estate for 31 years, despite it 
costing them nothing; whereas it has brought in 
over 50,000 visitors to the estate, hosted 
important scientific research on carbon storage, 
and become what is often described as the best 
example of a food forest (or forest garden) in the temperate world.


Groundbreaking work by agroforestry pioneer

Martin Crawford, founder and director of the 
Agroforestry Research Trust, which has leased the land for 31 years, says:

“We’ve put in decades of work to achieve this 
exemplar of a food forest system. This seems like 
a complete betrayal of trust by the DHT, who are 
only looking at money – they have given us no 
reasons but think they can get more money by 
flattening and building there or using it for 
something else instead of the rent we pay.”

A food forest or forest garden is a complex 
agroforestry system using trees, shrubs and 
perennial plants to mimic an ecosystem but with 
lots of crop plants. Think fruit and nut trees 
underplanted by fruiting shrubs and vegetables. 
They are very sustainable systems to grow food 
and store carbon at the same time. The food 
forest at Dartington has inspired the creation of 
thousands of such systems throughout the world, 
and more recently has inspired the Royal 
Horticultural Society to diversify their 
plantings at Wisley, and the National Trust to 
start its first forest garden at Shugborough.

Martin continues:

“Our charity and the DHT have had a long 
association with the understanding that ours is a 
long term land-based project which after 31 years 
still has a long way to go. For example, long 
term measurements of carbon storage in such 
systems are vitally important in climate change research.

DHT have had many other benefits too. We’ve 
brought some 50,000 people to the Estate, many of 
whom have gone on to use the accommodation or 
catering facilities. Over the years the DHT have 
used our name to get kudos for doing ecologically sound projects on the Estate.


“Ecological vandalism”

“Throwing us off is not the same as giving a 
tenant in a building notice – they can easily 
move. This food forest is irreplaceable. It is 
literally priceless. What the DHT are doing is ecological vandalism.

I had thought there was still a thread of ethical 
behaviour at DHT but was clearly mistaken. DHT 
are not breaking any laws giving us notice but it 
is still unethical, amoral behaviour breaking 31 
years of trust between our organisations. Their 
communications have at times been casual, 
disrespectful and with a feudal tone too, rubbing 
salt into the wounds – clearly they don’t care 
what their actions result in. Their calculations 
may well turn out wrong if an economic boycott takes place.

It’s even more galling, because we obviously need 
a secure long term tenancy, and we spent 4 years 
negotiating this with DHT and had a verbal 
agreement to go ahead with the last CEO Alan 
Bolden. Then with regime change the DHT reneged 
on that agreement and refused to give us a long term deal.

A lot of people have visited this food forest and 
know how valuable it is. Please protest this 
decision by writing to the DHT (see below) and 
tell them what this space means to you and what 
it’s loss to the wider world means; and why they 
should give us long-term security.

To the Dartington Trust I say: please reconsider 
your actions. As well as retracting this 
decision, we need a long term secure lease or to 
buy our site. This protest will continue until we 
get that. This kind of behaviour will lose you a 
lot local support. Do you really think you can survive without it?”

Dartington Trust Contacts to write to:

Robert Fedder 
(CEO):  <mailto:robert.fedder at dartington.org>robert.fedder at dartington.org

The Dartington Trustees: 
<mailto:trust at dartington.org>trust at dartington.org 
(these are listed on the Charity Commission website)

Nick Harris (COO): 
<mailto:nick.harris at dartington.org>nick.harris at dartington.org



We’ve created a Save the Dartington Forest Garden 
page about this where updates will be posted and 
your messages of support too if you want. Send 
messages of support to be posted 
to  <mailto:SavetheFG at agroforestry.co.uk>SavetheFG at agroforestry.co.uk


Economic boycott of Dartington Hall Trust

Some local ART supporters are doubtful that DHT 
will pay any attention to these kinds of 
protests, and argue that since DHT only 
understands the value of money, economic actions 
need to take place to persuade them to change 
their minds – in effect an economic boycott. They 
want people to ask themselves: Do you really want 
to give your money to such an unethical 
organisation? If not then target DHT and not the 
many wonderful business tenants on the Estate:
    * Don’t go and stay there.
    * Don’t buy their food at the White Hart. 
(But the Green Table and Montreal Bagels are run by tenants)
    * Don’t use or rent their facilities.
    * Don’t use the DHT Cider Press shops
    * Watch films at Totnes cinema rather than the Barn at Dartington Hall
    * If you’re a funder, think twice about funding DHT
    * If you’re a tenant on the Estate – maybe 
look elsewhere when your lease is up. Otherwise watch your back.
    * If you’re a prospective tenant – look elsewhere!
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