National College of Agricultural Engineering

In February 1959, the Minister of Education of the United Kingdom announced to the House of Commons that a new National College devoted to agriculture was to be established to provide a national centre for the agricultural engineering industry which would also attract overseas students.

The National College of Agricultural Engineering as it was initially known began at Silsoe in Bedfordshire, England.

In September 1962, the first cohort of 20 undergraduate students began their studies at Boreham House near Chelmsford in Essex.

The college farm was retained as an important outdoor laboratory for teaching and research purposes and the remainder of the Silsoe site was to be sold for redevelopment.

The former 'Soil Survey of England and Wales' (SSEW) that had commenced in 1939 in Bangor University, and then been transferred to Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1947, was moved to the Silsoe site, joining the college, in 1987.