International Cocoa Quarantine Centre

[chris_j_wood]

Interesting video on one of Reading's least known institutions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKSTmcvEdoU

Who knew that Reading played a pivotal role in the ongoing development of chocolate. But don't go searching Whiteknights looking for it, it is out Arborfield way.

[D5equj5]

How fascinating

[BOY RACER]

Yeah “Charlie and the chocolate factory says it all” PASS.

[mikejee]

Then quarantine centre used to be at Kew, but after Cadburys R & D came to the Reading site they first established some small greenhouses on the main university site for research, and the Quarantine centre later moved to because of the expertise developed at the university by the collaboration. The centre has been described as "the biggest cocoa plantation in europe", though one should also say the only one

[MickEdge]

Interesting, thanks. So it’s here because if any malevolent strains escape they can’t survive in our climate. Chocolate never lasts very long in the Edge household.

[ChipbuttyG]

Another feather in the cap for Wokingham.

[MickEdge]

The feather is surely in Reading University’s cap. They’ve been good at agriculture since Victorian times. Mind you, they’re not very popular with some in Wokingham for their London Valley Village, science and cine park and plans, and maybe a new place for the RBH.

[ChipbuttyG]

Ah, it's just I was told by former Labour councillor Jan Gavin, that when a crime happened on Knowsley Road it had nothing to do with crime in Reading, it was over the border in West Berks. So I assume as Aborfield comes under Wokingham council.......

[OLDMAN]

I think you are talking at cross purposes here
Reading University is private so not allied to any council apart from rates etc as majority of the land they are on comes under WBC, but some also under RBC
Crime is different – for example Reading University comes under WBC / the Lower Early Policing group so anything there is under WBC figures, it did come under RBC / the East Reading Police group at one time but the Policing areas got changed a few years back
It was interesting at the time as crime figures for ER went down dramatically but the figures in LE area went up!

[chris_j_wood]

It is next to the old ruined church in the middle of the University of Reading's land at Hall Farm. There is a public footpath that goes past it (between Cutbush Lane in Shinfield and the current Arborfield Church) but no public road access. In Arborfield civil parish and Wokingham unitary authority.

It is to do with Reading because it was Reading's civic pride that lead to the town creating a college that went on to become the only university to be granted a Royal Charter between the wars. Yes, now a lot of the university is in Wokingham district (and a bit in Buckinghamshire) but back then Wokingham was occupied by a mixture of aristocratic fox hunters and subsistence agricultural workers, neither of whom had much interest in education.

[OLDMAN]

It is next to the old ruined church in the middle of the University of Reading's land at Hall Farm. There is a public footpath that goes past it (between Cutbush Lane in Shinfield and the current Arborfield Church) but no public road access. In Arborfield civil parish and Wokingham unitary authority.

It is to do with Reading because it was Reading's civic pride that lead to the town creating a college that went on to become the only university to be granted a Royal Charter between the wars. Yes, now a lot of the university is in Wokingham district (and a bit in Buckinghamshire) but back then Wokingham was occupied by a mixture of aristocratic fox hunters and subsistence agricultural workers, neither of whom had much interest in education.