Welsh Plant Breeding Station - 50th Anniversary Garden Party

All the family is welcome on this sunny gala day of games, puppets and a buffet at a prestigious scientific institution near Aberystwyth.

Plants are for sale, donkeys are for riding, puppet shows are for watching and best outfits are for wearing at this family-orientated celebration of WPBS's 50 glorious years in 1969. The station was established as part of the University of Wales Aberystwyth, and from 1955 based at Plas Gogerddan, a mansion situated in the village of Penrhyncoch. Professor (later Sir) R George Stapledon was its first director; in 1969 it was directed by Professor P T Thomas.

The Welsh Plant Breeding Station is today known as the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Studies [IBERS]. It was founded in 1919 with the intention of breeding better varieties of grasses, clovers and cereals in Wales, particularly on upland pastures, so lessening the need for farmers to be buying in expensive food concentrates for their livestock. Stapledon (director 1919-42) worked with a collaborative, hand-picked team and the WPBS became the foremost research establishment in the world for grassland and plant breeding studies.