Catalogue description Archive of the Turner-Dumbrell Foundation, Ditchling

James Dumbrell, a gentleman farmer, tenanted North End Farm in Ditchling, and died suddenly at Brighton in June 1877 (Sussex Express, 26 June 1877). In 1885 his three daughters established a school at the farmhouse, and purchased the estate in 1919. In 1939 Mary and Edith Dumbrell refused to sell part of the estate, Lodge Hill, Bowries and Star Fields, to the developer Lewis Cohen, and remained determined not to allow housing on the land. Mary Dumbrell, the survivor, bequeathed the land to her cousin Dr Richard Turner, a cardiologist, who she felt shared her concern for the amenity of the village. In 1983 he created the Turner-Dumbrell Foundation with his sons Richard and Thomas Turner, the vicar of Ditchling and the local councillor as trustees. Part of the farm was sold and the buildings, dairy and five barns converted into workshops to be rented to local artists and craftsmen; surplus income was to be distributed in grants for the benefit of Ditchling and its locality. The centre, developed with the backing of COSIRA, was opened by Tim Rathbone, MP, on 22 March 1986.

For an illustrated article by Vida Herbison on the Misses Dumbrells' school, including a photograph of James Dumbrell, see Education Executive (January 1976) 12-14 (copy in searchroom library).

Deposited 17 August 2006 (ACC 9496)

In 1993 the papers, then at Ditchling Vicarage in the custody of the secretary of the Foundation, were subject to a form of listing, and labels with reference numbers were attached to many of the documents. For a copy of the list, see AMS 6751/8/4.