Wye College

The College of St Gregory and St Martin at Wye, commonly known as Wye College, was an education and research institution in the village of Wye, Kent. In 1447, Cardinal John Kempe founded his chantry there which also educated local children. , it still includes a rare, complete example of medieval chantry college buildings.

After abolition in 1545, parts of the chantry buildings were variously occupied as mansion, grammar school and charity school, before purchase by Kent and Surrey County Councils to provide technical education. For over a hundred years Wye became that college of London University most concerned with rural subjects, including agricultural sciences; business management; agriculture; horticulture, and agricultural economics.

Chemist and Actonian Prize winner, Louis Wain developed synthetic auxin selective herbicides 2,4-DB, MCPB, Bromoxynil and Ioxynil at Wye in the 1950s alongside his other research into insecticides, plant growth regulators and fungicides. Wain's colleague Gerald Wibberley championed alternative priorities for the college with an early emphasis on land use and the environment.

Successive phases of expansion developed the college's campus along Olantigh Road and accumulated an estate of nearly . However, following a difficult 2000 merger with Imperial College and controversial 2005 attempt to build 4,000 houses on its farmland, Imperial College at Wye closed in 2009.

, a pioneering postgraduate distance learning programme created at Wye College continued within SOAS. Many of the college buildings have been redeveloped, though some are retained for community use or occasional public access.

History

Chantry

Church leaders from the 14th century onwards had become concerned by the influence of John Wyclif and his fellow lollards in the Weald and Romney Marsh area. They felt priests educated in latin and theology, living in the community, would be better able to counter circulation of heretical translations and interpretation. Where these priests' persuasion failed, the alerted church authorities could punish committed lollards, or even have them burnt as at Wye in 1557. The cost of establishing small chantry colleges was relatively modest and many were instituted in part for this purpose.

Accordingly in 1432, John Kempe, then Archbishop of York and a native of adjoining Olantigh, was granted royal licence by King Henry VI to found the College of Saints Gregory and Martin in the parish of Wye. In 1447 after protracted negotiation, he obtained about an acre of land, including dwellings known as Shalewell, Goldsmyth and Shank, from the Abbot and Convent of Battle who owned the Manor of Wye. Kempe constructed the Latin School, and buildings around a cloistered quadrangle for the accommodation of secular priests. There were up to ten priests at any one time in his chantry. Kempe had also rebuilt adjoining Wye Church in 1447 and Archbishop of Canterbury, John Stafford granted its vicarship to the college. The priests acted as a college of canons for the now collegiate church; performed their chantry duties for the Kempes' souls, and included a teacher of grammar (latin). The master had to be a scholar of theology and member of Kempe's alma mater, Merton College.

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

The dedication to Saint Gregory and Saint Martin mirrors that of Kempe's adjoining church. An earlier, 1290 Wye Church, on the site, had been solely named for Saint Gregory. The further reference, at both the college and church, to Saint Martin may have been to recognise the contribution of Battle Abbey, itself dedicated to him.

By 1450, Wye College had appropriated the pilgrim's church at Boughton Aluph, and acquired land in Canterbury, Wye, Boughton Aluph, Crundale, Godmersham, Bethersden and Postling. King Edward IV granted it the west Kent coast churches of Newington, Brenzett and Broomhill in 1465.

The statutes of Kempe's chantry were not universally upheld. 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''. He failed to annually proclaim Kempe's statutes and maintained a relationship with a woman, in breach of them. Goodhewe also found time to be Rector of Staplehurst without papal dispensation to hold two incompatible benefices. He was however not removed from office for his misconduct. By 1534 the college had annual gross income of £125 15s 4d, or over £94,000 at 2022 values.

Other partially surviving chantry colleges near Wye include the larger Maidstone, and smaller Cobham Colleges.

Secular use

The college was surrendered in 1545 under the Abolition of Chantries Act of that year, its assets appropriated for the Court of Augmentations. An inventory was valued at £7 1 s 1 d plus a silver salt at £3; silver spoons at 27s 6d, and two old masters at 6s 8d.

Apart from its principal buildings the college owned nearby Perry Court, and Surrenden manors, together with the rectory and advowson of Broomhill on Romney Marsh. It was entitled to annual payments of 33s 4d from Westwell rectory, 10s from Hothfield rectory and 8s from Eastwell rectory. The college owned other land in Wye, Withersdane, Naccolt, Hinxhill, Godmersham, Crundale, Great Chart, Bethersden, Postling, Westbury and Broomhill.

These properties were alienated first to Catherine Parr's Secretary, Walter Buckler for £200, who promptly sold them in 1546 to his brother in law, and property speculator, Maurice Denys. Following Denys' disgrace the college was acquired by William Damsell in 1553, thence passing on death in 1582 to his four daughters.

As the seized properties 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''. Those terms were met haphazardly in the coming years. Sometimes the payment was little more than a sinecure, if it was made at all. In 1557, Archdeacon Harpsfield urged William Damsell be reminded of his obligations. Damsell had only been paying £9 of the £17 due each year, even though his former college lands in Wye alone gave him annual rents of £80. Harpsfield's treatment of Damsell was lenient by comparison to the two Protestants he ordered burnt to death at Wye earlier that year.

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.

In about 1626, King Charles I granted the forfeit former Wye College rectories of Boughton Aluph, Brenzett and Newington to reward his loyal supporter Robert Maxwell. The proviso was added Maxwell and his successors paid £16 per year, which reinstated the lapsed stipend for a Wye schoolmaster. Years later the sum would be diminished by inflation and several holders of the position faced short tenure and great financial hardship.

With salary back in place, the following year a grammar school for boys opened in part of the college though the southern range continued to be used as a private house in ownership of the Winchilsea Finch family from Eastwell. Restoration poet Ann Finch and her husband Heneage lived quietly at Wye College from 1690 to 1708 to avoid persecution at Court for their Jacobite sympathies. Several of her works refer directly or indirectly to the college and their time there, including reaction to a chimney fire in 1702.

Wye College's grammar school did not achieve the prominence of rival Eton College though its alumni included notables such as Robert Plot, first keeper of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. In 1762 there were 40 boarders and 100 day pupils but during other periods considerably less, if any at all.

Cardinal Kempe's nephew Thomas Kempe sold Olantigh to Sir Timothy Thornhills in 1607. The 1708 will of Lady Joanna Thornhill, the daughter of Sir Bevil Grenville, second wife of descendent Richard Thornhill, and Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Catherine of Braganza provided funds to care for and educate the children of Wye. Her trust purchased the college buildings and other property for that purpose. Sir George Wheler, who some sources claim was Lady Joanna Thornhill's nephew, acquired the private mansion linked to his old school in 1713. The transaction left the college part owned by Lady Thornhill's trust, and on Wheler's death in 1724, part by his. A grammar school operated in the Latin School and buildings around the cloister. The grammar school headmaster received free personal accommodation from Wheler's trust and the £16, but had to pay rent to Thornhill's trust for school space. The Thornhill trust operated its own charity schools for boys and girls in the Old Hall and Parlour respectively. Their schoolmaster received £30 per annum salary and the school mistress £20, from rent on property purchased in Wye and on Romney Marsh.

Wheler's will provided an annual £20 exhibition for boys from Wye Grammar School to attend Lincoln College funded by the rent charge on a house in Whitehall which he owned. Unfortunately by 1790, that charge had become impossible to collect. Its absence was still greatly lamented, nearly a century later, both by Wye Grammar School and Lincoln College.

Trustees of Lady Thornhill's charity school, requiring more space for girls to comply with the ''Elementary Education Act 1870'', converted outbuildings at the south east of the grammar school garden, belonging to Sir George Wheler's Trust, for the purpose. The building with its extant exposed crown post roof consequently became known as the college ''Wheelroom''.

Nevertheless, the situation was poor. An inspector passed the facilities "but with the greatest reluctance". He observed the Old Hall used as boys' schoolroom "though a fine old room, is ill-adapted for a school and requires constant repair", and bemoaned that "as long as they are allowed to use this old room, the inhabitants of Wye will not lift a finger towards the
erection of new schools". His conclusion was that Wye "has about the worst schools in the neighbourhood".

In 1878 the Wheler / Thornhill trusts and operation of the grammar and charity school premises they owned were combined, and two years later the girls' Wheelroom was leased to Wye and Brook School Board for use as an infant school.

South Eastern Agricultural College

Duty imposed upon beer and spirits under the ''Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 1890'', commonly known as ''Whiskey Money'', was intended to compensate licencees in the country required to close. It created an income which Sir Arthur Dyke Acland instead proposed to Parliament be earmarked for County Councils to spend on technical instruction. His amendment, it is reported, was adopted by a ''lethargic and half empty house''.

There were many institutions offering short courses in Agriculture but few opportunities for three year degree courses. The Normal School of Science, shortly to merge and form Imperial College, had only graduated seven agricultural students per year between 1878 and 1887. However, nationally £80,000 per year of the ''Whiskey Money'' was to be specifically allocated towards agricultural education.

The newly combined Thornhill Trust owned its school premises; nearby Amage Farm, and agricultural land on Romney Marsh. An 1891 proposal from the Earl of Winchilsea envisaged this should be the basis of an agricultural college for Kent, Surrey and Sussex, funded by ''Whiskey Money''. Sussex County Council dropped out of the scheme, and the farms were not immediately available, but negotiations took place for Kent County Council and Surrey County Council to purchase the school premises and a lease was arranged for Coldharbour Farm from Erle-Drax's Olantigh Estate. Coldharbour was considered difficult, inhospitable, and a suitable challenge for the college to prove its ability to local farmers.

In 1892, Kent and Surrey County Council obtained the old chantry premises for £1,000, the schools moving elsewhere in the village, and in 1894 opened the South Eastern Agricultural College there. They appointed chemist Alfred Daniel Hall as Principal and he opened with thirteen students. It was then ''the first and only college founded and maintained by public money solely for the benefit of agriculture in England''. At the time, it was compared favourably with state funded French Agricultural Institutes; German Research Institutes; Danish Folk Schools, and American Land Grant Colleges. Daniel Hall's student roll grew to 46 in 1900; 71 in 1902, and 124 in 1913.

Between 1892 and 1894, the existing buildings were extensively refurbished at a cost of £18,000; a lecture theatre (Old Lecture Theatre) was abutted to the Parlour repurposed as a library, and biological laboratory (Lecture Room A) constructed north west of the cloister range. Original accomodation to the south of the cloister housed the principal. A chemistry laboratory was arranged in an existing wooden building, and housekeeping wing formed between the cloister range and Wheelroom to service a refectory in the Old Hall. First floor space north of the cloister, and above the new biological laboratory and housekeeping wing, provided 20 student rooms. Others were to be accommodated in village houses.

Entomologist Frederick Theobald joined the opening college as lecturer in agricultural zoology, and later became vice-principal. His work transitioned what had been a matter of simply collecting insects to the study of damage they did to crops and how to mitigate it. He subsequently spent much of his time curating economic zoology and mosquito collections at the British Museum, and ceased lecturing at Wye from 1920 in favour of agricultural extension. Theobald's research on mosquitos and tropical sanitation earned him international recognition including the Order of Osmanieh and Mary Kingsley Medal. Nevertheless, Theobald remained closely involved with the college, living at Wye Court on Olantigh Road until his death in 1930, his coffin carried from there by former colleagues and students to be buried at Wye Church.

Alfred Daniel Hall moved to Rothamsted in 1902 to embark upon his ''marriage of agriculture and science''. At Wye he was replaced as principal by Malcolm Dunstan.

Hall's exodus was joined by his opening botany lecturer and vice-principal John Percival who moved to the University of Reading and become ''founding father of the faculty of agriculture'' there. Seeds Percival took with him became the nucleus of a native european wheat variety collection eventually numbering over 2,500 varieties in the 1930s.

John Russell had joined the college in 1901 and took over some of Hall's chemistry teaching. He began research into soil microbiology determining that oxygen uptake could be used to measure micro-organism activity in a soil sample. However, he too departed in 1907 taking up an invitation to rejoin Hall at Rothamstead. In 1968, Wye College's Russell Laboratories were named for him.

Former World War II RAF Wing Commander Dunstan Skilbeck was appointed Principal at the end of the war. A "forceful character", he remained in post for 23 years modeling Wye on an Oxford college, establishing and reinforcing traditions such as formal dining and the wearing of academic gowns. He took particular interest in establishing organisations such as the college's archeological society and beagle pack.

Skilbeck was joined by Louis Wain, returning to Wye as head of the two person chemistry department. He had previously been a temporary lecturer between 1937 and 1939. Wain went on to be head of Wye's ARC Plant Growth Substances and Systemic Fungicides Unit, and contributed to agricultural chemistry research at the college for fifty years. Whilst at Wye he developed and patented early synthetic auxin selective herbicides 2,4-DB, MCPB, Bromoxynil and Ioxynil.

Wain was widely regarded as "Wye's unofficial chief scientist" and "ambassador" responsible for much of the college's reputation. His work there also created herbicide Mecoprops Captan and Wyerone, as well as innovative plant growth regulators and insecticides.

Wye College

Only about a fifth of the South Eastern Agricultural College student intake was for three year BSc degrees. Others undertook short, more applied instruction for two year diplomas, or leading to a single year certificate. From the outset, short courses were provided, for instance to local school teachers tasked with instructing their pupils in nature topics.

In 1951, a room behind the college's Jacobean staircase north west of the cloister was converted to a chapel and consecrated by Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury. Paintings to be hung on the walls were provided by principal Dunstan Skilbeck's father and pews salvaged from the collapsed Eastwell Church. It had been a toilet before earlier transformation to small laboratory.

The refurbishment features 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. There has been speculation this room was originally the chantry's library.

The chapel was reconsecrated in 1997, but granted planning permission for conversion to residential use in 2021.

In 1954, Gerald Wibberley was appointed head of the Department of Economics. He led a move to broaden the college's interest in land use and explored alternatives to a ''farming first'' philosophy, sometimes leading to conflict with the national agricultural establishment and colleagues promoting Wye's agricultural chemistry tradition. With associate Robin Best, he drew particular early ire in ''the garden controversy'', an exploration of relative food security potential from domestic gardens and conventional farming.

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

In 1997 the Kempe Centre, named for Cardinal John Kempe, was opened by Princess Anne at the junction of Olantigh and Occupation Roads. The learning resource building received a RIBA award with praise for its ''aesthetic grandeur'' and ''environmental efficiency''. It subsequently formed the nucleus of Wye School.

Of the £4 million projected cost only £750,000 came from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The college provided £2 million from property sales (including Court Lodge); the Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust donated £100,000, and £500,000 came from an appeal including sums from the Wolfson Foundation, Westminster foundations and individual alumni. The remainder was funded by commercial loans.

In 2000, Wye College had students enrolled from 50 countries; 477 undergraduates; 259 postgraduates, and 200 on short courses. The growing External Programme had registered 975 mid-career professionals from 120 countries.

Imperial College at Wye

In 2000, Wye College merged with Imperial College and was renamed Imperial College at Wye. It ceased to be an independent College of London University.

Justifications for the merger from Wye College's side were largely an aspiration to achieve financial resilience through scale. There was anticipated decline in demand for domestic agricultural qualifications. Government intended to withdraw from funding '' near market'' agricultural research in favour of pure sciences. It wished to reduce per capita student payments generally; weight them away from the subjects taught at Wye, and move to annual rather than five yearly funding arrangements. The college governors felt these measures would disproportionately and adversely impact small agricultural teaching and research institutions like Wye.

Apart from Imperial College, mergers were considered with University of Kent at Canterbury and University of Greenwich. The governors concluded that ''Imperial College, like Wye a constituent College of the University of London, complemented Wye most closely''. The colleges were already partners in Natural Resources International, though so too was Greenwich. Imperial College was publicly enthusiastic.

In spite of reporting a financial surplus only once in its last ten independent years, Wye College went into the merger with reserves of £8.3 million, and had doubled its annual revenue in those years to £12 million as it pivoted away from a dependency on traditional agricultural science courses. It had just invested £5.5 million in new facilities, and a further £2 million preparing 50 postgraduate courses for the External Programme.

Imperial College briefly used Wye College's origins to dubiously claim the status of third-oldest university in England.

Paul Sykes was appointed new rector of Imperial College in 2000. 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.

Nevertheless, 25% of academic staff at Wye were offered redundancy terms and took them. Worse still, Imperial College inadvertently did not include Wye undergraduate courses in its prospectus so admissions plummeted in 2000 and 2001.

As early as January 2001, Imperial College privately declared the 2000 merger a ''mistake'' and sought Higher Education Funding Council for England finance to transfer Wye campus to the University of Canterbury or a local technical college. As a result of these problems newly installed provost, Tim Clark resigned to be replace by Jeff Waage. In public however, Imperial College began promoting Wye to potential students.

The Higher Education Funding Council did agree to meet legitimate costs Imperial College incurred in the 2000 merger. Imperial claimed £10.2 million. In 2002, the sum to be paid was settled at £2.5 million.

During a 2003 lecture to civil engineering students Paul Sykes expressed concern about the integration of Wye College into Imperial College and stated it was not a part of his ''vision'' for Imperial College. By then student admissions to Wye were at record high levels, notably from EU residents on Agricultural Business Management courses, and research income was growing.

The campus met its first set of financial targets but was disadvantaged by Imperial College's policy to allocate property and occupancy costs at a flat rate across all its sites. Intensively used city centre premises in South Kensington were being charged the same rate per floor area as the many acres of glasshouses at Wye. In private, Imperial College rejected Wye's Department of Agricultural Science business plan for 2004 / 2005.

In 2004 Leszek Borysiewicz, Imperial College's deputy rector informed staff by email that Wye's Department of Agricultural Sciences was closing and most teaching and research at Wye would end. Provost, Jeff Waage protested then resigned. The sudden announcement was blamed on the department's financial performance; distance between Wye and London, and low academic grades amongst applicants for agriculture courses. Critics argued these were all matters well known to Imperial College before merger.

Imperial College scheme

In 2005, Imperial College announced it intended to convert Wye College's estate into a research centre for non-food crops and biomass fuels, and that it had support from Kent County Council and Ashford Borough Council. Later accounts included commercial biofuel production facilities on Wibberley Way and BP suggested as putative partner / operator. Leaked documents revealed Imperial College expected to gain £100 million by building 4,000 houses on in the Kent Downs, provoking national as well as local opposition.

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.

The plan was seen as a test case for other attempts to build on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In 2006, Ashford Borough Council withdrew support, and Imperial College abandoned its plans. Campaigners hailed the decision as a key victory preserving the status of protected areas, and Wye as a village.

Closure

In 2021, Telereal Trillium obtained planning permission to convert the traditional college buildings to 38 dwellings.

''Conversion:''
* Entrance quadrangle; dining hall; second quadrangle, and Wheelroom (Grade II listed)
* Latin School and rooms around the cloister including the solar (Grade I listed)

''Preserved and available for public access one day a month:''
* Cloistered quadrangle; Old Lecture Theatre; Old Hall; Parlour, and Jacobean staircase (Grade I listed)

''Community use''
* Former estates office / noisy common room area by the main college entrance, as a long term home for the Wye Heritage charity.

Estate and facilities

Wye College's estate extended to about , largely between the villages of Wye and Brook. The college farmed approximately , and was employed for horticulture, both on a commercial basis. The remainder accommodated hop gardens, woodland, recreation space, research and buildings.

By 1984, the college owned much of Wye village across the High Street from its main entrance, over to Bridge Street and some premises on Oxenturn Road. That was variously used for administration, student hostels, car parking, a clinic, laundry and offices. Wye College owned the NIAB facility at Coldharbour Farm; the MAFF / Defra regional offices and laboratories on Olantigh Road; Regional Veterinary Investgation Centre / Edward Partridge House off Coldharbour Lane; Agricultural Field Centre; Farm Mechanisation Unit; beagle kennels; Court Lodge; Brook Agricultural Museum; sport fields on Cherry Garden Lane, and an SSSI site at Wye Crown and quarry.

By 2000, teaching and research resources included extensive glasshouses; climate-controlled growth rooms; a containment facility for transgenic plants; dedicated laboratories for plant molecular biology; genomics and gene sequencing; electron microscopy; use of radiochemicals; soil analysis, and plant/animal cell culture. Research was carried out at dairy, pig, hop and sheep enterprises on the college's farm; in the horticulture department; on the chalk grasslands, and amongst commercial crops.

Layout

About 1982

Student accommodation

Student bedrooms were provided at Withersdane Hall, or on the first floor of the main campus above teaching and administration space. Alternatively, the college owned student hostels in Wye village, including Daniel Hall, Old Flying Horse, Squires, Blue Shutters, Old Vicarage, Wolfson, New Kempes, Coldharbour and Harwood. Some of the hostels were self catering. Other student accommodation was available in college and privately owned houses.

Old Flying Horse

The hostel directly facing the main college entrance across High Street had been an inn, and before that medieval hall-house. Fourteenth century painted decoration and a dais canopy to protect guests from falling soot and sparks survived into the 20th century.

Cloister

Painted glass

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. The window was in a precarious position by the publicly accessible churchyard on the one side, and in a space used for student parties and ball games on the other. The college decided to replace it with a modern replica and sell the original. York Minster purchased the medieval glass at auction and incorporated it in their new Zouche Chapel, with other glasswork relating to Kempe.

Latin School

The building may not have consistently been used as a schoolroom. As early as the 16th century, references suggest it was employed as a chapel.

Old Hall

The minstrel's gallery is a relatively late 1946 addition opposite the dias end of the hall.

Parlour

To the left of the parlour's cloister entrance is the door to what was , a large medieval wine cellar.

Withersdane Hall

Withersdane Hall is a post-war, purpose-built hall of residence constructed around the pre-existing, Barnard family's mansion. It included Swanley Hall auditorium; facilities for breakfast catering; lounges; laundry; formal gardens; tennis courts; woodland car parking; extensive lawns, and could be configured as a residential conference centre. CEAS operated from premises on the site. Between 1986 and 1993 Lloyds Bank; Dunstan Skilbeck and Bernard Sunley halls of residence were added to the complex.

The name Withersdane derives from ''Wider's Farmstead'', being ''Widres tun'' in Old English. ''Tun'' became corrupted to ''don'', ''den'' and then finally to the present name. In the 18th century, Hasted described'' Withersden'' as a hamlet, formerly a manor, "full of small inclosures, and the soil deeper".

Withersane Hall was constructed in the early 1810s as a grand country mansion near the site known for its curative mineral well named for Saint Eustace.

Russell Hoban repurposed Withersdane as "Widders Dump" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel ''Riddley Walker''. Wye became "How"; The Devil's Kneading Trough, "Mr Clevvers Roaling Place", and Pet Street, "Pig Sweet".

Jacobean staircase

The grade I listed, Jacobean, three flight staircase adjacent to Wye College's cloister has been compared in significance to the grand staircases at Knole House. Its seven newel finials are large painted statues, two male and seven female, commonly referred to as the ''Ancient Britons''. The largest male of the beechwood, Flemish style figures is believed to represent Hercules. They were separated from the newel posts for protection from students who ''pelted them'', and placed for safe display on the minstrels gallery in the nearby Old Hall.

Imperial College sold the statues in 2009 as ''reproductions''. English Heritage and Ashford Borough Council ordered that Imperial College repurchase and return them, which it did.

Student Union

A dedicated Student Union building opened in 1974 on Olantigh Road, north of the science laboratories, replacing the Wheelroom complex.

The new building provided a club bar; mercery; offices; committee room; printing press; darkroom; television lounge; careers library; pigeonholes for undergraduate and postgraduate student mail; a gymnasium; workshop, and spaces for events, coffee, or quiet recreation. Outside there was a swimming pool.

The Wye College Union of Students, commonly WCUS, was NUS affiliated and a constituent union of ULU. In 2000 it merged with Imperial College Union

Wye Crown and quarry

During a parish meeting in 1902, the South Eastern Agricultural College's principal offered to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII with a hill figure, carved into the North Downs scarp, above the college. Horses and humans carved into hillsides are well known, but the tall crown motif chosen was to be unique. It had to be distorted to take account of the viewpoint below and took 35 students four spring days, and 7,000 wheelbarrow loads of turf, soil and chalk to excavate. The King's 30 June coronation was delayed by illness, but there was still a bonfire on the Crown. When the coronation did take place on 7 August the Crown was illuminated by 1,500 candles. The King was able to view the Crown himself, as a guest of Baron Frederic John Gerard at Eastwell Manor, two years later when it was lit by electric light.

Wye Crown has been a focus of celebrations for royal and national occasions, as well as Wye College students' charity week bonfires. In 2020, the Crown was illuminated to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, although during World War I and II it had to be camouflaged from enemy aircraft to prevent use as a navigation landmark.

Behind the bench and way marker are numerous small hollows believed to be ancient ironstone pits. The features acquired a mythology amongst Wye College students and spoof traditions were attributed to inscriptions on stone tablets supposedly found there.

The college's quarry, below the Crown was a source of flint and chalk, the chalk likely burnt for construction lime. Wye College students used it for clay pigeon shooting and spectacular parties, causing marginally less disruption than the machine gun training there during World War II. In 1991, part of the slope was converted to seating arranged as a natural, outdoor amphitheatre.

The Wye Crown and quarry form part of the Wye National Nature Reserve. Its thin, seasonally grazed chalk grassland provides an ideal habitat for orchids.

Wye College farm today

Imperial College retains ownership of the Wye College farmland. Most of it is leased to a former student, with other parts to Ripple Farm Organics; The Wooden Spoon, and Michael and Wendy Barnes. The main farm lease runs to 2025.

Sport field

As of 2022, the former college sport field off Cherry Garden Lane is used by Wye Football Juniors.

Legacy activities

External Programme

The Wye College External Programme, established in 1988 under Ian Carruthers, was the first use of exclusively, distance learning by the University of London. The programme built upon Wye's established research and teaching links to the rural developing world, especially in Africa. It combined resources from existing departments of Agricultural Economics; Agriculture and Horticulture; Environment, and Biological Sciences to offer cross disciplinary MSc and Postgraduate Diploma courses.

Developing the 50 courses cost Wye College £2 million. Learning resources were initially on paper, supplemented by audio cassettes; videotapes, and 24 hour telephone support. The World Wide Web was embraced later.

The program received a Queen's Anniversary Prize for Education in 1994, the first year the awards were granted. A citation commended the unique program for providing quality professional development for 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.

By 2000, Wye's External Programme had 975 mid-career professionals registered from 120 countries, and was growing. It became the Centre for Development, Environment and Policy at SOAS, University of London, albeit initially from the Wye campus. This arrangement allowed enrolled students to be awarded their contracted ''University of London'' degrees but deprived Imperial College of a program it had been consistently enthusiastic about acquiring.

Hop research

Ernest Stanley Salmon established a systematic hop breeding programme at the college in 1906. It was the world's first, and a model for those that followed. The importance of the work was rapidly understood so whilst 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.

He bred varieties such as ''Brewer's Gold'' (1934), ''Bullion'' (1938), and ''Northern Brewer'' (1944). It was estimated in 2005 that over half of all hops grown commercially worldwide were descended from Salmon's original seedlings. Ray Neve succeeded Salmon in 1953 and bred varieties such as ''Wye Northdown'' (1971), ''Wye Challenger'' (1971), and ''Wye Target'' (1972).

In 1981 Peter Darby took over the programme and concentrated on dwarf hops such as ''First Gold'' (1995); aphid resistance (''Boadicea'', 2004), and flavour. At that time, the college's breeding program was producing 30,000 plants a year to evaluate.

The unit merged into the newly formed Horticulture Research Institute in 1985; through subsequent consolidation became a part of Horticulture Research International in 1990, and spun off with East Malling Research Station to form East Malling Research in 2004. As Imperial College sought to close their Wye campus in 2007, hop research activities transferred to Wye Hops Ltd, a subsidiary of the British Hop Association, the collections moving from Wye to China Farm, Upper Harbledown where they remain .

''Cyclamen Persicum''

In the 1960s, Allan Jackson's breeding program at Wye crossed large flowered cyclamen with wild forms, producing smaller houseplants with scented, elongated flowers and attractively marked foliage. These became known as the "Wye College Hybrids" and , continue to be produced commercially.

The hybrid varieties include ''Wye Downland'' (white), ''Admiral'' (orchid-mauve), ''Peacock'' (pinky / red) and ''Fritillary'' (dark-red and jewel colours). Those named after butterflies are fragrant and breed true to the colour of their namesakes.

Biological pest control

Just as academics at Wye had provided growers with practical research on early pesticides and been at the forefront developing new selective herbicides, so too they explored biological methods of pest control and facilitated their widespread adoption

Mike Copeland's entomology team harnessed Australian ladybirds, and parasitic wasps to suppress mealy bug and soft scale insect pests. He launched Wye Bugs at the 1991 Chelsea Flower Show to make insect controls available to ordinary gardeners, and with the subsequent closure of Wye Campus to facilitate continued research. Wye Bugs occupied glasshouses and laboratory facilities to the north of Occupation Road but by 2019, when that site was presented for development, moved south of the track.

, Wye Bugs supply biological control insects and pest deterrents, mainly on a wholesale basis.

John Nix Pocketbook

John Nix published the first edition of his ''Farm Management Pocketbook'' in 1966 and sales were estimated at 250,000 copies by the time he retired in 1989. As of 2022, it is in its 55th edition and known as the ''John Nix Pocketbook for Farm Management''. Contents include information for budgeting, or benchmarking, that seeks to anticipate forthcoming trends.

For many years, Nix's colleague in the Wye College Farm Business Unit, Paul Hill, researched and co-authored the pocketbook. Nix died in 2018, and his pocketbook is published, , by The Andersons Centre.

Nix's pocketbook was described in the ''International Journal of Agricultural Management'' as a "standard reference for business in agriculture".

Brook Agricultural Museum

In 1948, Wye College agreed to be custodian to a collection of old agricultural implements acquired by former staff members. Students including Michael Nightingale undertook the transfer, cataloguing and arrangement of items, from East Malling Research Station to Coldharbour Farm. When Wye College purchased Court Lodge Farm, Brook in 1957, the growing collection was transferred to the 14th century crown post roof Manorial Barn there.

In 1996 the college decided to sell the adjoining Principal's House at Court Lodge. Wye Rural Museum Trust, again led by Michael Nightingale, was established to take over the collection. With help from grants and donations the trust purchased its barn at Brook in 1997.

, the museum operates regular summer opening hours to the public.

CEAS

The Centre for European Agricultural Studies was conceived at Wye College in 1971, within the Department of Agricultural Economics. As the UK joined the European Common Market, agricultural affairs in Britain were expected to be strongly influenced by its Common Agricultural Policy. The centre was intended to be an independent research centre focused on implications for UK food, farming and rural communities of these new policy directions.

A 1973 appeal raised £463,000 to support the research and in 1975, Henry Plumb opened purpose-built £650,000 premises at Withersdane Hall, where the centre also operated a European Documentation Centre. The Frank Parkinson Lecture Theatre was supported by a grant from the Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust and incorporated facilities for live translation of speakers. Space was provided to accommodate visiting academics.

By 1990, CEAS was providing a venue for the Worshipful Company of Farmers Advanced Management Course and specialist training to Lloyds and National Westminster Bank. The conference facility had a turnover of £200,000 and was booked up two years in advance.

CEAS Consultants (Wye) Ltd incorporated in 1985 to undertake commercial consultancy work, and Wye College held a ownership stake that subsequently passed to Imperial College. By 1990, it had established a satellite office in Brussels. In 2006, CEAS Consultants (Wye) Ltd moved from Withersdane Hall to Bramble Lane, Wye and , it operates, as Agra CEAS Consultants Ltd, at an address in Berkshire.

Following changes to Common Agricultural Policy priorities, the centre was renamed the ''Centre for European Agri-Environmental Studies''. In 2006, it left the closing Wye Campus and became a Centre of the University of Kent in Canterbury.

Wye Double Digger

The Wye Double Digger was developed at Wye College in the 1980s and incorporates a conventional mouldboard plough with a rotary cultivator operating in the open furrow. It was designed to break up soil compaction layers below plough depth; mix topsoil with subsoil, and allow deep incorporation of soil nutrients. The powered blades help provide forward propulsion for the share. Wye's Double Digger was tested around the world, notably at Purdue University. A business was established to market it, and commercial two furrow version built, before development ceased.

Wye College Beagles

John Stevens established a Wye College Beagle pack in 1947, encouraged by principal Dunstan Skilbeck who was chairman from 1947 to 1967, and the endeavour was largely run by students of the college. It disbanded in 2014, having been independent of the college since 2008 when the campus closed.

The first kennelman lived in an old double decker bus by the kennels, but as facilities developed ''Beagle Cottage'' was made available by the college to his successors.

Supporters of the beagle pack ran annual horse, and terrier shows from the 1950s to 1980s, and also a hunt ball and puppy show. Opponents of hunting within the college's student body organised their alternative "Anti-hunt Ball" on the same evening as the beagle hunt ball.

In 1988, at the invitation of
Simon Block, Lay Sheriff, Wye College's beagles led the Lord Mayor's Parade through the City of London. They were accommodated the night before at Knightsbridge Barracks.

Animal Liberation Front

Wye College Beagles achieved national prominence in 2001 when Animal Liberation Front activists raided their kennels and took approximately 47 of the pack. It was reported the beagles had only caught one hare in the previous year.

In popular culture

2007 television drama ''Cape Wrath'' includes scenes filmed at Wye College. The Old Lecture Theatre's steeply tiered, ''student proof'' oak benches masquerade as a London academic institution.

Alumni and staff

Agricola Club

The Wye College Agricola Club is an association of former students and staff of the college. It was founded in 1901 for the South Eastern Agricultural College, and from 1951 to 1995 was named the ''Wye College Agricola Club and Swanley Guild''. From 2000 to 2009 it formed part of Imperial College's ''Imperial Alumni'', but is an independent entity with some 3,000 members. The club publishes an annual journal, ''Wye: The Journal of The Wye College Agricola Club''.

Staff

Students

References

External links

Agricola Club

Brook Agricultural Museum
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