Letcombe Laboratory

rdf:langString Letcombe Laboratory

rdf:langString The Letcombe Laboratory was located at Letcombe Regis, Oxfordshire, UK and began life in 1957 as the Agricultural Research Council Radiobiological Laboratory investigating contamination of land and food by radioactive substances, especially strontium-90, released by weapons testing. When atmospheric testing was halted in the 1960s, the laboratory's work was re-directed towards the study of plant root systems and their interactions with agricultural soils. In recognition of this transition, the laboratory was renamed The Letcombe Laboratory in 1969. Under this new guise, it came to resemble more closely numerous other agricultural research institutions owned and/or funded by UK's Agricultural Research Council (ARC) (Cooke, 1981). These were made-up of eight institutes directly under ARC control together with fourteen ARC grant-aided institutes in England and Wales and eight in Scotland. In 1983, the ARC was re-organised and renamed the Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) and, two years later, central government expenditure cuts forced the Letcombe Laboratory to close along with the nearby AFRC Weed Research Organisation with which the Letcombe Laboratory had collaborated closely. The site was then bought by the Dow Chemical Company and used as a centre for crop fungicide research.