[5] Chemist and Actonian Prize winner, Louis Wain[6]: 441  developed synthetic auxin selective herbicides 2,4-DB, MCPB and Bromoxynil at Wye in the 1950s[6]: 448–450  alongside his other research into insecticides, plant growth regulators and fungicides.

[13] In 1432, John Kempe, then Archbishop of York and a native of adjoining Olantigh, was granted royal license by King Henry VI to found the College of Saints Gregory and Martin in the parish of Wye.

[14] Kempe's statutes required the college to teach all scholars free, both rich and poor, though as a welcome seasonal exception grateful students could reward the schoolmaster with gifts of fowl and pennies on Saint Nicholas Day, confuetam galloram & denariorum Sancti Nicholai gratuitam oblationem.

In 1511, Master Goodhewe was reported to Archbishop Warham for appointing himself, rather than other fellows, to the College's remunerated positions, and taking the entire benefit of its endowment to the neglect of divine service and the cure of souls.

[3]: 28, 29 [14] As the seized lands passed from the Crown, and onwards, they did so subject to conditions, echoing Kempe's statutes, requiring the owners to "at all times provide and maintain a sufficient Schoolmaster capable of teaching boys and young lads in the art of Grammar, without fee or reward, in this parish".

[3]: 29 The college buildings were occupied as a substantial private residence in 1610 for the Twysden family, incorporating the extant, fine Jacobean staircase and imposing fireplaces to the Hall and Parlour.

[3]: 46 [22] With salary back in place, the following year a grammar school for boys opened in part of the college[3]: 29  though the southern range continued to be used as a private house in ownership of the Winchilsea Finch family from Eastwell.

[3]: 32 Sir George Wheler, who some sources claim was Lady Joanna Thornhill's nephew, acquired the private mansion – the southern range, garden, outbuildings and Latin School in 1713.

[41]: 177 In 1892, Kent and Surrey county councils obtained the old chantry premises for £1,000, the schools moving to a new building on land Lady Thornhill's trust owned in Bridge Street,[3]: 61  and in 1894 opened the South Eastern Agricultural College there.

[49] Complementing individual consultations and publications,[50] college staff toured the south-east of England giving lectures to agricultural or rural organisations on "fruit growing, farriery, poultry, bee keeping, and numerous veterinary topics",[7]: 488  sometimes in migratory vans specially prepared for these roadshows.

In addition to their normal annual contributions the counties had to make exceptional 1895 payments to cover their college's deficit and stringent cost cutting was enforced in place of the earlier largess.

[52] From 1894, students seeking a three-year qualification completed the college's two-year diploma and were then prepared a further year for examination by the Royal Agricultural Society of England, the Surveyors' Institution or by Cambridge University.

[46] Academics at Wye sought early ways to establish the actual cost of agricultural products on farm, albeit with varied success, and double entry book-keeping was then a part of the curriculum.

A 28 bed reception hospital operated from 1915 to 1916 and subsequently a Red Cross supply depot[3]: 101  was organised by Mrs Barnard of Withersdane Hall[55] and principal Dunstan's daughter Hester.

A "forceful character", he remained in post for 23 years modelling Wye on an Oxford college, establishing and reinforcing traditions such as formal dining and the wearing of academic gowns.

[18] The refurbishment featured a stained glass window designed by Michael Farrar-Bell, looking onto Wye Church, incorporating the University of London coat of arms, and depictions of King Henry VI and Cardinal Kempe.

[74][73][75][76] Alongside his roles at the Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas, and as expert witness to public inquiries into large scale planning applications, Wibberley continued at the college until 1985.

[73] His work led to expansion of social science research and teaching at Wye with new Rural Environmental Studies and Landscape Ecology, Design and Maintenance courses, and ultimately business management options.

In spite of Wye being among the very smallest, and persistent concerns that agriculture was not "a fit subject to study at university", it was spared a merger because of physical isolation outside the capital and the absence of course overlap / potential cost savings with sister London colleges.

[11]: 21 In spite of reporting an operating surplus only once in its last ten independent years, instead relying heavily on endowment income and property sales, Wye College went into the merger with net assets of £18.24 million.

He visited Wye and expressed enthusiasm for investment in academic facilities there, placing the campus in the short lived Life Sciences faculty that arose from his early reorganisation of Imperial College.

Leaked documents revealed Imperial College expected to gain £100 million by building 4,000 houses on 250 acres (100 ha) in the Kent Downs, provoking national as well as local opposition.

[99][100] Imperial College's project team had spent at least £850,000 on external consultants preparing their Wye Park masterplan, and subsequently paid Bell Pottinger to lobby regional and national government in its favour.

Outside the village Wye College owned the NIAB facility at Coldharbour Farm; the MAFF / Defra regional offices and laboratories on Olantigh Road; Regional Veterinary Investigation Centre / Edward Partridge House off Coldharbour Lane; Withersdane Hall, Agricultural Field Centre / Farm Mechanisation Unit / Poultry Research; beagle kennels; Court Lodge; Brook Agricultural Museum; sport fields on Cherry Garden Lane, and an SSSI site at Wye Crown and quarry.

Particularly good the wave moulded doorway with plank and stud door to the staircase.In about 1996, it was discovered the low ground floor window from the college's cloistered quadrangle to Wye Churchyard was medieval painted glass and bore the crest of both's founder, Cardinal Kempe.

[4]: 35 [62]: 27 Following college closure the Latin School was briefly occupied by community group Wye Heritage, as an exhibition and event space, but in 2021 Telereal Trillium obtained planning permission for conversion to residential use.

[7]: 488  It included Swanley Hall auditorium; facilities for breakfast catering; lounges; laundry; formal gardens; tennis courts; woodland car parking; extensive lawns,[82][113] and could be configured as a residential conference centre.

[132] Wye College students used it for clay pigeon shooting and spectacular parties,[82] causing marginally less disruption than the machine gun training there during World War II.

A citation commended the unique programme for providing quality professional development to agriculturalists at a third the cost of overseas students in the UK, and its ability to project even into war torn countries thereby assisting their recovery.

[48] The importance of his work was rapidly understood so while the college's other hop gardens were grubbed out in 1917 to grow potatoes and support the war effort, Salmon's trial plots were spared.