Long Ashton Research Station

Abstract

Long Ashton's origins were related to early interests in food science, for in the 19th Century when Somerset was a wheat‐producing county, each farm made its own cider as an incentive for the hand reapers. But cider quality varied greatly and, in 1893, the Bath and West Society initiated experiments into cider making. On the basis of ten years' results, reported to the Board of Agriculture, the National Fruit and Cider Institute was established on a 14‐acre site at Long Ashton in 1903. Under the Agricultural Development Act of 1909, Long Ashton received further support to widen its activities as one of the new National Agricultural Research Institutes. Since 1912, the Station has been a Department of the University of Bristol, and is also one of the thirty institutes under the aegis of the Agricultural Research Council.