Dorothy Hartley

Dorothy Rosaman Hartley (4 October 1893 – 22 October 1985) was an English social historian, illustrator, and author. Daughter of a clergyman, she studied art, which she later taught. Her interest in history led her into writing. Among her books are six volumes of The Life and Work of the People of England, covering six centuries of English history.

She is best known as the author of the book Food in England, which has had a strong influence on many contemporary cooks and food writers. Delia Smith called it "A classic book without a worthy successor – a must for any keen English cook." It combines an historical perspective on its subject with the practical approach of an experienced cook. It has remained in print ever since its publication in 1954.

Biography

Early years Hartley was born at Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton, Yorkshire, the youngest of three children of the headmaster of the school, the Rev Edward Tomson Hartley (1849–1923) and his wife, Amy Lucy, née Eddy (1853–1932). In her 1954 book, Food in England, Hartley gave an autobiographical sketch using the kitchens of her various homes as the background: "My first kitchen was a stone-floored cottage in the Yorkshire dales…Fresh mountain air and the smell of cooking always filled this brightly polished kitchen." She was educated at a convent of French nuns at Skipton until 1904, where, she recalled, "the kitchen was alive with stir and bustle, the clatter of clogs and pails, and the aroma of breakfast coffee."

After her secondary education at Loughborough High School Hartley attended Nottingham Art School. During the First World War she temporarily abandoned her studies and worked in a munitions factory. In 1919 she entered the Regent Street Polytechnic in London where she was, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, a prize pupil. She returned to Nottingham Art School as a teacher in 1920–22. She continued to teach, in London and elsewhere, for many years. Many of her books are scholarly in nature, and were reviewed favourably by expert critics. Together with Margaret M. Elliot she wrote Life and Work of the People of England, in six volumes, published between 1925 and 1931. In 1930 she published The Old Book, "A Mediaeval Anthology Edited and Illuminated by Dorothy Hartley" with an introduction by Professor George Saintsbury. In 1931 she "collated and edited" the poet Thomas Tusser's Good Points of Husbandry.

Also in 1931 Hartley published what was, until Food in England in 1954, her best-known book, Medieval Costume and Life. In it she showed the clothes of peasants depicted in old manuscripts, with diagrams to show how they were made, and photographs of models wearing them, one of the models being Hartley herself.

In addition to her skill as an illustrator, Hartley was a keen photographer. In 1931 she travelled by car from Egypt to the Congo, taking many photographs which were later exhibited at the Imperial Institute in London.

Food in England

Hartley's mother was from Froncysyllte, near Llangollen in north Wales, where the family owned quarries and property. In 1933 Hartley moved to a house in Froncysyllte, where she lived for the rest of her life. Harold Nicolson in The Observer said, "it will become a classic", though he made gentle fun of the combative Englishness of Hartley's culinary pronouncements. The Sunday Times, reviewing the seventh edition of the book later wrote, "For food scholarship at its best see Dorothy Hartley's robust, idiosyncratic, irresistible Food in England... As packed with diverse and fascinating information as a Scotch bun with fruit, this untidy bundle of erudition is held together by the writer's huge enjoyment of her subject, her immense curiosity about everything to do with the growth, preparation, preservation and eating of food in this country since the Middle Ages."

Later years In the post-war years Hartley taught at University College and Goldsmiths' College in London, appeared on television with the chef Philip Harben, and advised on the BBC Archers rustic soap-opera. In 1964 she published Water in England, of which the ODNB writes, "This remarkable work is full of valuable information on all manner of related phenomena such as holy springs, well digging, leather jugs, spa hotels, and suchlike."

Hartley, who remained unmarried, died at Fron House, Froncysyllte, aged 92.

Books

As author

(reissued in 2003 under the title Medieval Costume and How to Recreate it) 3rd ed. 1950; 4th ed. 1973; Little Toller Books edition 2018 (includes introduction by Fran Edgerley)

(Published in the USA as Lost Country Life, Pantheon, 1980)

As editor

As artist