Image Ref : DRA 4903.tif

John Sidney Smerdon, farmer of Barton Farm, at Dartington

Sidney Smerdon was a tenant farmer of the Champernownes at Dartington until 1920. They initially refused his offer to buy the farm and, by the time they had decided to accept, he had already agreed to buy Forder Farm, away from the estate. He purchased it in July 1919, as reported by the Western Times on 25 July 1919 (page 9). He paid £7,375 for the three lots in the sale, which included the farmstead and 'very rich grazing proportion.' (In December 2024, the cost was equivalent to just over £477,200.) On 12 September 1919, the Devon and Exeter Gazette published an advertisement for '180 acres of very excellent grass' at Barton Farm. He had already disposed of his livestock (advertised earlier in the year), having been given notice to quit Barton. Since the newspaper reported he was 'quitting the estate [i.e. the Dartington estate] at Lady-day next', that dates this photograph to no later than early 1920. By the time of the Census on 19 June 1921, he is installed at Forder with his family. Note lamb feeder and cider on steps. DRA 6216 D 161