Who was Adela Marion Curtis?

Currently the earliest known photograph of Adela Curtis, seen here on the right, with her mother, Harriet Curtis, nee Vaughan, and her younger brother, Frederick. The picture was taken probably in the mid 1880s when Adela would have been about 17 and Frederick around 15 years of age.

This is an edited version of a blog that was posted back in September 2023. It provides helpful background information about Adela Curtis and is easier to access from the navigation bar on this site.

Adela Curtis (1867 - 1960) was a mystic, a teacher, a healer, a prolific writer, the owner of a bookshop, and the founder of religious communities. She had a passion for self-sufficiency, believing that this was a genuine alternative to capitalism and socialism. She was a vegetarian and a consistent advocate of organic food production. Brought up as an Anglican, she was dissatisfied with what the regular churches offered and yearned for more, for a closer and deeper connection with God. For a number of years, in the early 20th century, she was a proponent of New Thought, a North American movement that focused on spiritual healing through the power of the mind. Many people - mainly but not solely women - were inspired by her teachings and followed her.

Between 1907 and 1919, she set up her School Of Silence, firstly in Kensington and then also as a settlement in Cold Ash, Berkshire. This was her great experiment, by which she hoped to demonstrate that it was possible to live self-sufficiently in terms of food, clothing and shelter, within a framework of meditation, healing through the mind and spiritual teaching.

The School of Silence at Cold Ash, Berkshire, built 1914-15.

Photograph of Adela Curtis taken at Cold Ash, in about 1917.

By 1919 however, the School had run into financial difficulties and Adela, worn out by leading every aspect of the life, was unable to find anyone willing to take it on. She became ill and moved to Dorset, whilst the Cold Ash site was sold to Downe House School. Adela believed that she had given up her active life. In 1921, she bought a field on the Coast Road heading out of Burton Bradstock towards Swyre. The road was not tarmacked and there was no plumbing or electrity or gas for the five roomed wooden hut she had put up on the site, for her and her housekeeper to live in.

The hut/wooden bungalow at Burton Mere. Photograph taken in the 1920s.

When Adela decided to build a more permanent structure on her field, she gave instructions to the architect, James Maclaren Ross, to design a small farmhouse which she hoped was to be a home for her and her two nieces, who had been living with her for a couple of years. She still had a vision of living self-sufficiently and had an orchard and vegetable garden established on the land.

Adela Curtis and James Maclaren Ross standing outside the kitchen of Little Farm in 1927.

The farmhouse, once complete, did not stay as a family home for long, however, as the nieces found life too lonely there. By 1930, they had moved to London, returning to spend a weekend with their aunt once a month and for holidays. Little Farm became The Bible Students’ Colony, with former students of Adela’s joining her here, alongside new followers.

The Farmhouse, as seen from the road, looking towards the sea. The kitchen is on the left, with the bay window of the sitting room visible on the far right of the building. One solitary cow is in the foreground. There are no trees or shrubs at this stage and the house would have had no protection from any winds or storms.

Adela had a new hut put up for herself called Littleness, as she was happier living in a wooden building. This new community was thriving during the 1930s, with members mostly living in huts, spending their time in meditation and teaching and in tending their gardens and producing their clothing. They wove sheep’s wool into cloth and their garments earned them the nickname of the White Ladies in the local community.

Sister Evelyn in her white robes, standing next to her sister-in-law, Beth Bendy and nephew, John. Photo taken in about 1935. Evelyn lived about 20 years in the community.

Although Adela Curtis had distanced herself from some of the teaching of New Thought many years before, yet she continued her practice of healing, meditation and teaching as Warden of the community. She wrote numerous books and pamphlets throughout her life, waking up early most mornings and writing for two to three hours a day. By the late 1930s the community was known as the Christian Contemplatives Charity and a significant achievement at this time was the building of the chapel, which was undertaken in 1937. Many people donated towards this project and there was a big service of dedication in early 1938.

The newly built chapel with its original furnishings in about 1938.

Sadly, the chapel was only in use for a short while and then World War Two broke out and the house was requisitioned by the army. The sisters had to use the chapel to store all their household furniture as it was not needed by the army. A few sisters remained, living in huts in the grounds but gradually the older ones died and when the war was over, there weren’t new recruits coming forward in the same way for this kind of life. Adela Curtis was the last to live on site - she lived her final years in a hut called Ancren almost as a recluse, becoming reluctant to see anyone.

Picture of Ancren taken in 1935. Adela Curtis lived here until a few days before her death in 1960.

By 1960 she was 92 and her nieces kept an eye on her as best they could - they were with her when she died in Community House in September of that year. As trustees of the charity, they were left with the task of finding another charity willing to take on the house and grounds and some of the huts. It was five years before Norman Motley was approached and said, ‘Yes’, to a second site for Othona.