Jealott's Hill is a village in the county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Warfield. The settlement is on the A3095 road approximately north of

Bracknell Bracknell () is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Re ...

. The nearest railway station is in .

History

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 John Snare (christened 31 July 1808 born c.1811, died 10 January 1884) was a bookseller and publisher from Reading, Berkshire, Reading, England, whose life was dominated by the discovery at a country house auction in 1845 of a hitherto lost Dieg ...

's 1846 map and by the 1920s the modern spelling was established.

Syngenta research site

Jealott's Hill is home to

Syngenta Syngenta Global AG is a global agricultural technology company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It primarily covers crop protection and seeds for farmers. Syngenta is part of the Syngenta Group, entirely owned by Sinochem, a Chinese state ...

's largest

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

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 industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

's Agricultural Research Station; initially the research focused on

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

fertilizers A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrition, plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from Liming (soil), liming materials or other non- ...

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 used to pest control, control pest (organism), pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for a ...

. 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 and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

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 certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

in recognition of 80 years of scientific research which led to global developments in agriculture.

References

Villages in Berkshire Warfield {{Berkshire-geo-stub