Long Ashton Research Station

Later, it expanded into fruit research (particularly apples, pears, plums, strawberries and blackcurrants)[1] and in the 1980s was redirected to work on arable crops and aspects of botany.

Fenswood Farm on the north side of the road was bought by the university in 1920 to extend the space available for experiments, and in 1921 the Campden Research Station was taken under Long Ashton's management.

During World War II a home grown source of Vitamin C was needed and the blackcurrant drink Ribena was developed at Long Ashton.

[8] A new Biology Laboratory was completed in 1948 and in 1952, although links with Campden Research Station ended, the ARC Unit of Plant Nutrition was set up at Long Ashton.

Although the new Treharne Library and Fryer Laboratory were built in 1987, as a junior partner in IACR, Long Ashton was now vulnerable in the event of further restructuring.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC, formed from the previous AFRC in 1994) announced in 1999 that Long Ashton was to be closed.

[10][11] The seventeenth and final Long Ashton International Symposium took place in 2002 and the Research Station was duly closed in 2003 having served agriculture and horticulture for exactly 100 years.

Some of the remaining staff were moved to Rothamsted during Long Ashton's final years, providing some continuity with the programmes of work under way prior to closure.

[18] Hewitt's and Hoagland's solution formulations led to increased growth of nursery fig trees in high-tunnel and open-field conditions, respectively.