Broadbalk, a national treasure
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Broadbalk, a national treasure by Michael Trolove as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Broadbalk, a national treasure
Image: © Michael Trolove Taken: 22 Apr 2012
An ordinary arable field in the Hertfordshire countryside with a not so ordinary background. This is Broadbalk a field on the Rothamsted Experimental Research farm http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/. It has grown a Winter Wheat crop every year since 1843 and every year samples of the crop, soil and the seed have been kept along with all sorts of scientific studies that have been short term and long term. Nine now eight classic experiments were set up to understand the interaction of fertilisers both organic (farmyard muck) and inorganic fertilisers on wheat crops and in particular one field, Broadbalk. Please download the pdf file for a real in depth history of this world class facility http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/resources/LongTermExperiments.pdf Set on the fringes of Harpenden the farm estate is criss crossed by footpaths and bridleways, Broadbalk is easily seen and an interpretation board stands at the field entrance to enhance your visit.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.809146
Longitude
-0.373222