The creation of the Beaford Archive
7
If, from the vantage point of fifty-six years on, the Dartington Hall Trustees’ decision back in 1966 to establish a rural arts centre in a small North Devon village seems remarkable, the idea that an arts centre should seek to establish a photographic archive surely seems even more surprising. This did however fit very well with John Lane’s commitment to community engagement. To him the word ‘Centre’ was something of a misnomer. He was committed to breaking down the well-guarded barriers between arts and community involvement. To him ‘The whole intention is … rather than to have a single arty-ficial oasis, to flood the area with experiences and opportunities’.
The first small steps in establishing the photographic archive at Beaford lay in Lane’s appointment of a resident photographer in 1971. A contemporary Beaford report setting out the scope of this initiative merits quoting in some detail:
‘The origins of a photographer attached to the Centre and permanently working in the community is to be found in the dissatisfaction felt by the Centre for the traditional kind of art exhibition in the rarefied atmosphere of galleries. …. Exhibitions of paintings and sculpture are largely irrelevant to the majority [of people]. … Photography belongs to the spirit of our times’.
The report continued:
[The photographer’s] ‘brief is to photograph life in North Devon in all its aspects, and provide a comprehensive record of a remote rural area and to present this region with an image of itself. … When people ask fifty years from now: “What was life in rural England really like in grandfather’s day?” [these] photographs should provide one kind of answer’.
It set out five ‘initial projects’:
1. ‘Study of Mill Farm, Beaford, through the days and seasons.
2. a photographic study of the village of Dolton, an isolated community above the river Torridge, in the heart of the North Devon countryside. The subjects will be:
(a) The architectural features of the village.
(b) The various village industries and trades (Genette, the fly factory, the fishmonger, the coalman, the butcher who kills his own meat etc).
(c) The children of the village school throughout the day.
(d) The village recreations from football to the carnival.
(e) A number of individuals representing a cross section of the community, showing them at work and in their leisure hours.
3. A project with the social historian, E W Martin, … to photograph and interview old people in the area who can talk about life as they knew it in Devon 60 or 70 years ago. …
4. A series of photographs illustrating the various rural recreations in North Devon: otter and fox hunting, pigeon and game shooting, village cricket, football, badminton, and fishing, bell-ringing, darts matches, Women’s Institutes, Carnivals, dances, bingo, the cinema, whist drives and drinking in the pub.
5. A study of a complete form of school leavers from Torrington County Secondary School who … can speak for their contemporaries. …’
The report concluded:
‘When this study is complete, the Beaford Centre will mount an exhibition of photographs in the village hall, accompanied by taped interviews, old photographs and a brief description and social history of the village’.
It seems clear from this 1971 report that the impetus for this initiative lay very much in seeing photography as a medium for creating an historical and social record rather than recognising its value as an art form. This makes it seem even more remarkable that an arts centre should have embarked on establishing an archive at a time when major museums had been coming late to giving photography the attention it deserved. (Anon, 2016)
For the Centre’s first resident photographer, John Lane appointed Roger Deakins, who came to Beaford from the Bath Academy of Art where he had been studying Visual Communications. Torquay-born and the grandson of a Devon farmer, Deakins was initially employed for six months from September 1971 to April 1972 at £15 per week (plus expenses) with the help of a £150 grant from the South Western Arts Association. The Centre was keen however to extend his employment, explaining ‘Unless a grant can be found to extend his work for a further 6 months… a unique record of English life [will be] left incomplete.’
Roger Deakins’ personal interests lay in film as well as photography and before 1972 was out he had left Beaford to attend the National Film School. He went on to a highly successful Oscar-winning international career as a cinematographer. During his time as Beaford’s first resident photographer, he made a significant impact. He created an initial portfolio of over six thousand black and white photographs of life and landscape in North Devon and showed the benefits to be had from embedding a documentary photographer in a rural setting. His distinctive North Devon images, a selection of which has recently been published, formed the foundation of what has become known as the Beaford ‘New Archive’. (Deakins, 2021) We cannot know what might have happened for photography – and film – at Beaford had Deakins stayed longer but his decision to move on opened the way for John Lane to appoint James Ravilious in his place.