Rothamsted Research

Rothamsted Research stands on 330 hectares of parkland near Harpenden in Hertfordshire. Founded in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes on his 16th-century estate, it is one of the world’s oldest agricultural research stations. Two of its experiments have run without interruption since the 19th century: the Broadbalk winter wheat plots started in 1843 and the Park Grass biological study begun in 1856. Lawes hired chemist Henry Dobson and later Joseph Henry Gilbert, who trained under Justus von Liebig, to design long-term field trials that still shape modern farming. Over 57 years the two men established the principles of crop nutrition and fertiliser use. In 1919 director E. John Russell brought Ronald Fisher to analyse decades of data, leading to the birth of experimental design and modern statistics at Rothamsted. The site has produced discoveries used worldwide. During the Second World War Judah Hirsch Quastel’s team developed 2,4-D, now the most widely used weed killer. Rothamsted scientists pioneered systemic herbicides and pyrethroid insecticides and made key advances in virology, nematology and soil science. Today the institute employs around 300 scientists plus support staff and hosts 50 visiting researchers. It also manages two experimental farms: Broom’s Barn near Bury St Edmunds for sugar beet research and North Wyke in Devon with three 25-hectare mini-farms for grassland studies. Five research programmes focus on sustainable wheat, green engineering, resilient farming, healthier ecosystems and carbon-neutral food production. Visitors walk through the historic estate where the original plots remain. The Broadbalk fields show winter wheat grown every year since 1843, while Park Grass displays meadows unchanged since 1856. The Long Term Experiments building houses records from seven ongoing trials that feed the online e-RA database. The Insect Survey operates two national monitoring networks, and PHI-base offers a database of pathogen-host interactions. The landscape combines Victorian parkland with modern research plots, and the site still hosts occasional public events where scientists explain their work.