Mark Beeson (1954-2022) was born in Powell River, Canada, to Christopher and Jane Beeson. Mark spent most of his childhood on a farm on Dartmoor, boarding at Highfield School and Winchester College before moving to Oxford to initially study Classics at Magdalen College, before changing to Human Sciences. Mark’s correspondence during his time at university reveals a sense of disconnection with Oxford and a longing for the landscape of Dartmoor.

In 1979, his archaeological survey of Widecombe-in-the-Moor was published in collaboration with Michael Masterman for the Devon Sites and Monuments Register. A year later, Mark’s poem ‘The Walk’ won a prize in the Arvon Foundation’s first international poetry competition, with Ted Hughes commenting that “both Seamus [Heaney] and myself were very taken by it”. Also in 1980, Mark married Alison Hastie, with whom he had two children: Luke and Teffan.

A prolific writer, poet, and playwright from a young age, Mark’s first community play, ‘The Badgers’, was performed in 1980 and followed two archaeologists as they navigated a badgers’ sett. The play explored the government’s policy of badger culling and its impact on Dartmoor and the environment. It would be the first of many community plays written by Mark and performed by MED Theatre during his 30-year tenure as Artistic Director.

In 1981, after working for years to receive external funding, Mark travelled to the Zomba Plateau in Malawi to complete a self-funded study of the blue monkeys native to the area, under the supervision of primatologist Vernon Reynolds. Mark’s detailed diaries, and his verse novel ‘The Blue Monkeys of Zomba Plateau,’ beautifully describe the landscape of Malawi, detailing the day-to-day tasks completed by Mark on the mountain, his observations, and even his shopping lists.

In 1986, Mark’s research on the blue monkeys was awarded an MPhil in primate ecology from the University of Exeter, and he was later elected to the Linnean Society. Inspired by the family structures of blue monkeys, Mark founded Manaton and East Dartmoor Theatre (later named MED Theatre), a rural community theatre company, in 1989. Mark’s contribution to Dartmoor theatre was recognised in 2002 when he received the Dartmoor Society Award.

Mark drew inspiration from a multitude of subjects, and his plays were often inspired by the mythology and landscape of Dartmoor. With stories about badger culling, bees, salmon, swallows, and even the tragic tale of Donald Crowhurst, Mark’s plays are exciting, creative, and often comedic. Several of the plays were adapted or written for radio and produced by BBC Radio 4, including Hound of the Cabells, The Primates (1984), The Therapists (1986), and The Swallows (1989).

Mark also founded The Dart magazine with Alison Hastie and local friends. The magazine began production in 1981 and continued until 2001, publishing articles on subjects such as nuclear disarmament, environmental concerns, local traditions and trades, and other community issues.

The Mark Beeson collection (EUL MS 488) consists of 66 boxes of archival material divided into five sections: personal material, literary papers, primatology, Widecombe-in-the-Moor Archaeological Survey, Dartmoor, and MED Theatre. We also hold a collection of letters from Mark Beeson to his good friend Gerard McBurney (EUL MS 493).

The breadth and diversity of the collection makes it rich for researchers interested in subjects such as theatre studies, the history of Devon and Dartmoor, folklore, primatology and scientific research, and sociology. Mark’s correspondence, writing, press cuttings and other papers place him within a community of environmentalists, activists, and artists, and showcases the alternative cultures of Devon and Cornwall in the 1970s and 80s.

Thank you to Luke and Teffan Beeson for permission to publish the images included in this blog.