About Adela Curtis
By 1921, Miss Curtis’s most ambitious project, a Community Settlement at Cold Ash in Berkshire had failed and she thought her active life was over. She bought 17 acres of scrubby land, which overlooked the sea, a couple of miles outside Burton Bradstock in Dorset and had erected on it a wooden hut, which became her new home.
Over the next few years, with the building of a farmhouse and the arrival of students still keen to learn from her, a new version of community arose, which flourished in the middle of the 20th century.
In 1965, five years after her death, the farmhouse-turned-community-house and some surrounding land and huts were taken on by the Othona Community as their second base. Othona continues to operate a retreat and holiday centre here to this day.
About Liz Howlett’s research project
When Liz began her research during Covid-19 lockdown, it was unclear whether there would be much original material to draw on, and among the surviving people who had met Adela Curtis most would have been children at the time.
But with help especially from members of Miss Curtis' family on three continents, Liz has had access to diaries and notebooks, personal letters, news reports, photos and memoirs, as well as the many books and pamphlets Adela published during her lifetime.
Liz started a blog when she set off on her American adventures and continues to write posts focussed on topics related to Adela Curtis.
If you would like to know more about this, do click on this link. (You can subscribe for free to receive new posts.)