Dartington Crystal

The Dartington Crystal story starts in 1920 when the Dartington Hall Trust was founded by a wealthy American heiress, Dorothy Elmhurst and her Yorkshireman husband, Leonard. The Dartington Hall Trust was created to assist with the economic regeneration of the rural area, and Dartington Glass was founded as one of these Social Enterprises. The initial team was lead by 16 Scandinavian glass blowers who were invited to the UK to teach their English colleagues the skill of making glass. Those skills are still in use at their Torrington factory, where around 350,000 pieces are made each year.