Wye College

The College of St Gregory and St Martin at Wye, commonly known as Wye College, was an education and research institution in the village of Wye, Kent. In 1447, Cardinal John Kempe founded his chantry there which also educated local children. As of 2020, it still includes a rare, complete example of medieval chantry college buildings. After abolition in 1545, parts of the premises were variously occupied as mansion, grammar school, charity school, infant school and national school, before purchase by Kent and Surrey County Councils to provide men's technical education. For over a hundred years Wye became the school, then college, of London University most concerned with rural subjects, including agricultural sciences; business management; agriculture; horticulture, and agricultural economics. Chemist and Actonian Prize winner, Louis Wain developed synthetic auxin selective herbicides 2,4-DB, MCPB and Bromoxynil at Wye in the 1950s alongside his other research into insecticides, plant growth regulators and fungicides. Wain's colleague Gerald Wibberley championed alternative priorities for the college with an early emphasis on land use and the environment. Following World War II and a 1947 merger with Swanley Horticultural College for women, Wye transformed itself from small agricultural college, providing local practical instruction, to university for a rapidly increasing number of national and international students. Successive phases of expansion developed the college's campus along Olantigh Road, Withersdane Hall the country's first post-war, purpose built university hall of residence, and accumulated an estate of nearly 1,000 acres (400 ha). However, after a difficult 2000 merger with Imperial College and controversial 2005 attempt to build 4,000 houses on its farmland, Imperial College at Wye closed in 2009. As of 2010, the pioneering postgraduate distance learning programme created at Wye College continued within SOAS. Many of the college buildings have been redeveloped, though some are retained for community use or occasional public access.