WPW040032 WALES (1932). View of National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, showing allotments, oblique aerial view. 5"x4" black and white glass plate negative.

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Details

Title [WPW040032] View of National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, showing allotments, oblique aerial view. 5"x4" black and white glass plate negative.
Reference WPW040032
Date 1932
Link Coflein Archive Item 6369646
Place name
Parish
District
Country WALES
Easting / Northing 259413, 281609
Longitude / Latitude -4.0673000693229, 52.414010532429
National Grid Reference SN594816

Pins

Summer House used by WPBS staff working on the outdoor experimental plots

David Jenkin
Thursday 30th of January 2014 08:10:39 PM
In 1937,the gardens that are nearest in the picture were not allotments but experimental plots belonging to the Welsh Plant Breeding Station. The WPBS also occupied the land in front of the National Library and used it for experimental plots and seed multiplication.

David Jenkin
Wednesday 29th of January 2014 11:44:03 PM
The two glasshouses belonged to the WPBS. The more distant and larger one had railway tracks going to the outside so that plant pots could be taken outside and then brought in if it rained. This is the area that is closest to the present hospital's outpatients' entrance. The nearby and closer greenhouse was used for the artificial pollination of grasses using a completely new technique developed by T J Jenkin, which established the WPBS as a world leader in grass breeding. His grasses included the ryegrass S23, which was very important in improving grassland in the UK and an unlicenced version was grown in New Zealand. The technique was then used in the USA for breeding wheat

David Jenkin
Wednesday 29th of January 2014 11:39:30 PM

User Comment Contributions

A fantastic photograph of the National Library of Wales

KimberlyBriscoe
Monday 16th of December 2013 01:22:30 PM
At the back of the building (to the right) is the first part of "bookstack 1" which is more or less a shell with the floors built around a steel shelving structure. The gardens are indeed now car parks, however the smallest plot was, even in the late 1970's used as the Librarian's garden. All the produce, carefully tended by the gardeners (note plural) went to the Librarian, who also lived in the Library "house" - Hengwrt, on Llanbadarn Road (just down the field to the left of the picture). The "front" part of the Library was opened in 1937. They must have worked incredibly hard to get from this in 1932 to the completed quadrangle by 1937.

Iestyn
Wednesday 19th of June 2013 01:27:43 PM
Things have changed somewhat since this was taken - are these now carparks?

Alison Cutforth
Wednesday 13th of March 2013 03:49:22 PM
Photo focuses just on one building, yet so much has changed.

Alison
Tuesday 3rd of July 2012 12:05:14 AM
Amazing photo, I was reading at Aberystwyth University two years ago, and used the National Library quite a lot. It must have been even more imposing with all the space around it then.

David Gilmour
Tuesday 3rd of July 2012 12:05:14 AM