Dartington donor says Trust is heading to a “terminal brick wall”

Dartington Hall Trust has come under blistering attack from a long-time donor who lambasts the current management for “too much bean counting” and shifting its priorities away from charitable activities supporting the arts, education and social justice.

The criticisms come in a memo from Richard Creed to Lord David Triesman, the chair of Dartington who after he took over in March 2023 put the charity into crisis mode, cutting costs dramatically in a bid to avoid what he viewed as a potential financial meltdown. Creed says in his note that over some 50 years  he has given the trust several million pounds, with the money coming either from his own resources or from “funds under my direction”, with the cash going to a variety of projects ranging from gardens and music to buildings restoration.

His claims regarding the amounts he has given have been verified by people who know him, including those previously running the trust. They have not however been able to identify the funds under his direction. Creed has often been mentioned in Dartington’s accounts as a donor – though the amounts he has given have not been recorded.

Creed’s note, sent to Triesman at the start of September, hits out at Dartington’s new business model whereby it has been cutting its own directly managed operations and instead leasing buildings for use by others and so bringing in rental income. “If this were a commercial business it would be a very desiccated and boring approach but in theory it would pay the bills,” the memo says. “However, Dartington is not a commercial business , it is a charity and your team is failing to honour its responsibilities.”

In his note Creed – who is in his 80s – says of Triesman and the wider Dartington organisation: “You are heading towards a terminal brick wall and unless there are dramatic changes in personnel and attitude Dartington as a vibrant charity may be lost.” He says that while he had been planning to leave Dartington a large legacy, recent events had meant he was now cutting the trust out of his will.

In 2021, a Monterey pine was planted in Creed’s honour on the Dartington estate , with a plaque to recognise “his generosity, love and support for the Dartington Gardens over many years”. Unfortunately the tree has recently fallen.

Creed’s broadside is referred to indirectly in an equally hard-hitting “open letter” from Robert Fedder, the charity’s interim chief executive, which says the trust’s new approach “is building sustainable, stable revenue to get Dartington back on its feet once and for all”. Fedder also admonishes critics such as Creed many of whom he says are afflicted by “intoxication by denial” driven by “historical affection” for Dartington that “appears to transcend any common sense or appreciation of basic financial housekeeping”.

Creed  is described by one person who knows him as “articulate, quite old-fashioned and conservative”. He is also regarded as intensely private and someone who would have had to feel highly aggrieved before writing such a strongly worded note. The long-time donor says in his memo that it is not private. He  has circulated it to people he knows who are associated with Dartington. The document has been obtained by Totnes Pulse and is being published here.

Through an intermediary, Creed has said he is unwilling to comment further.

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Richard Creed’s Memo to David Triesman. Ref  Dartington Hall Trust, September 2025

When you kindly gave lunch to your then fellow Trustee Sylvie Pierce and me at the House of Lords I came away regretting that you seemed to have no interest in either music or horticulture but taking at face value your apparent enthusiasm for Dartington, both as a place and as a very important Charity in its various fields of endeavour.  I wish I still felt the same way.

Dartington had several jewels but the International Summer School of Music and the Gardens were for me and many others the supreme jewels. The first of the many donations that I have made either from my own money or from funds under my direction was to the Gardens. The then Chair of Trustees was Maurice Ash who was thrilled that someone was giving money rather than asking for it and he and his wife Ruth (daughter of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst) invited me to Sharpham, their home, where they suggested that I might join the Gardens Advisory Committee (GAC).  I was thrilled.

For the next 50 years or so until you and your executive team arrived I had the most enjoyable experience of being able to direct several million pounds to a host of projects ranging from funding the first Volunteer Manager, paying for new IT plus staff to go with it, a new telephone system and the restoration not only of the Great Hall but also the Church Tower.

The Summer School and the Gardens however were my main love and I paid the cost of the recent transformation of the Walled Garden and, a few years ago jointly with the sadly missed Kate Caddy (an Elmhirst granddaughter) met the cost of Dan Pearson’s work preparing the plan for a major Gardens project  which your former superb Head Gardener, Neville Evans and his equally superb deputy and demon propagator Mo Holt were bringing to what would have been a sensational conclusion.  I am only sorry that they will not be there to finish the work nor I to pay some of the bills, and that is all your fault.

The fact is that you and your executives treated the gardens staff disgracefully. You changed their employment terms in such a way that they had no alternative but to seek employment elsewhere. You completely ignored my offer of financial help.  It was as though you were determined to destroy the Gardens team. Perhaps you were.  If you were, you have succeeded and lost a Head Gardener and well motivated team who achieved wonders with very limited resources.

If you think a contractor can provide their sort of service you are going to have a salutary experience, judging by previous experiments.  Looking after a garden of Dartington’s complexity and size is not a part time job. It requires total full time commitment combined with prodigious horticultural skills.

Meanwhile what did you do with the Summer School?  The Summer School (for many years I was a Trustee of the fundraising Foundation) was living beyond its means but it was an important fixture in the musical life of this country. It needed to be relaunched in a far less expensive format but without upsetting the world class teachers and performers and also without upsetting the wealthy supporters. Alas, instead of relaunching the Summer School you destroyed it and all the goodwill that had sustained it for over 60 years.  

Under your leadership a theme has developed which is presumably intentional; do nothing yourselves, lease or sell everything, including presumably (but I hope not) the Hotel, Great Hall and the White Hart and watch the pounds come in. In other words turn Dartington into a business park. 

If this were a commercial business it would be a very desiccated and boring approach but in theory it would pay the bills.  However Dartington is not a commercial business it is a Charity and your team is failing to honour its responsibilities. There is no musical mission and there is no educational mission.  The intensive training of garden volunteers has ceased with the loss of Neville and Mo and how can you run a Charity involved in the arts, education and social justice if all the premises needed for that have been leased to outsiders.

Meanwhile rumour has it that you are still losing money, and all this in the centenary year.  Has there been a massive fundraising project?  Have there been amazing Charitable projects either started or envisaged?  I have not heard of anything except your very modest ‘Heritage Centre’ which on past experience may not cover its expenses and may only have very modest visitor footfall.

The fact is that under your leadership there has been too much bean counting and a total lack of get up and go Charitable work.  But then how can you do Charitable work if you have leased or sold all the premises in which such Charitable work can be done?  You are heading towards a terminal brick wall and unless there are dramatic changes in personnel and attitude Dartington as a vibrant Charity may be lost.

I end on a personal note. Dartington has always assumed (correctly) that, when I die, Dartington would receive a substantial legacy. It never occurred to me to change that.  However I have been so shocked by the insensitive and uncharitable behaviour of you and your executives that I realise that Dartington is no longer a worthy successor to the Elmhirst dream and I have therefore made a new will in which Dartington does not appear.

This Memo is not private and I am therefore circulating it to those Trustees for whom I have addresses and to members of GAC [Dartington gardens advisory committee].

Richard Creed