The Local Area
I built the Ashridge workshop in 1988 with a really good working and teaching environment as the priority.
It took four years in the old workshops to finalise the best plan and arrangement of space with much input from the then students. To concentrate easily and absorb information well, it is much more easily done if, for a rest of the brain, you can look up, let your thoughts wander and see cows grazing and sometimes a buzzard hawk stooping. We are on a low ridge in a wide valley with patchwork fields. Under high ceilings each workbench has its own window and we have views across the open countryside toward Dartmoor. There is plenty of storage space and a separate machine room. No claustrophobia in this workshop.
We are three miles from Totnes, a beautiful, thriving, Elizabethan Market town in the county of Devon. Totnes is on the River Dart nine miles from its mouth on the English Channel. The location is some 200 miles west of London with excellent access both by Rail (3 hours), or by road (probably nearer 4 hours) –the major arterial route, the A38, is only a few minutes away and this links to the M5 and M4 Motorways to London.Totnes is also only 30 minutes from the historically important cities of Exeter and Plymouth –and from the latter there is a frequent direct ferry service to France. A few minutes from Ashridge is the world-renowned Dartington College of Arts, founded in the 1930s by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst.
South Devon is a very beautiful part of England, from the open uplands of Dartmoor, passing down into rolling hills and wooded valleys and then to the beaches and estuarine inlets of the coastal fringe. Many well known films have been set in this countryside.
I mention all this because it is important to know that you will be in an environment that provides ample opportunity for relaxation outside the hard work and efforts in the workshop. There is walking on Dartmoor and along the Devon coastal path, fishing, riding, sailing, surfing, golf and other outdoor pursuits.
The location is some 200 miles west of London with excellent access both by Rail (3 hours), or by road (probably nearer 4 hours) – the major arterial route, the A38, is only a few minutes away and this links to the M5 and M4 Motorways to London. Totnes is also only 30 minutes from the historically important cities of Exeter and Plymouth – and from the latter there is a frequent direct ferry service to France. A few minutes from Ashridge is the world-renowned Dartington College of Arts, founded in the 1930s by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst.
South Devon is a very beautiful part of England, from the open uplands of Dartmoor, passing down into rolling hills and wooded valleys and then to the beaches and estuarine inlets of the coastal fringe
Totnes is also only 30 minutes from the historically important cities of Exeter and Plymouth –and from the latter there is a frequent direct ferry service to France.
There is walking on Dartmoor and along the Devon coastal path, fishing, riding, sailing, surfing, golf and other outdoor pursuits.