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Jealott's Hill is a village in the county of
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, within the
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of
Warfield Warfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire and the borough of Bracknell Forest. History Warfield was originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement and is recorded in the Domesday Book as ''Warwelt'' ic The name is believ ...
. The settlement is on the A3095 road approximately north of
Bracknell Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Reading, south of Maiden ...
. The nearest railway station is in . The name of the hill is reported to have derived from the surname of a 14th-century landowner, Roger Jolyl. This name evolved into "Joyliff's Hill" and then, on Henry Walter's ''Map of Windsor Forest, 1823'', became "Jealous Hill". This changed again to "Jealot's Hill" on John Snare's 1846 map and by the 1920s the modern spelling was established.


Syngenta research site

Jealott's Hill is home to
Syngenta Syngenta AG is a provider of agricultural science and technology, in particular seeds and pesticides with its management headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It is owned by ChemChina, a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Syngenta was found ...
's largest
research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...
site which includes a large agricultural research greenhouse at and a farm. , Syngenta employed around 800 people there. The site was formed in 1927 by the amalgamation of three farms, Hawthorndale, Nuptown and Jealott's Hill itself. Jealott's Hill House was built in 1928 and officially opened on 28 June 1929 as the offices, laboratory and library of
Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926. Its headquarters were at ...
's Agricultural Research Station; initially the research focused on
nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
fertilizers A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
in grassland management. In 1936, the Hawthorndale Biological Laboratories were opened in the converted
mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...
building of the former farm. Research there involved the biological evaluation of chemicals as potential
pesticides Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and la ...
. The site is now called Jealott's Hill International Research Centre. In 2007, the site was recognised by the
Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Inst ...
as a National Chemistry Landmark and awarded a
blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term ...
in recognition of 80 years of scientific research which led to global developments in agriculture.


References

Villages in Berkshire Warfield {{Berkshire-geo-stub