![]() The earliest local artefacts are Mesolithic flint axes from about 10,000 years ago, dug up in Cheapside and at Manor Farm, Ascot. This is a very dangerous place to be.įor several thousand years after the glaciers retreated, no one had lived here permanently, although foraging groups of Stone Age people no doubt passed through the district. The occupants are soon to find themselves in the middle of a royal hunting forest. ![]() A tiny cluster of primitive huts surrounds an ancient hill-top shrine. The huge forest of Windsor occupies all of the land to the north and east. The great bog of Sunningwell stretches away to the south, and the barren heaths of Ascot lie to the west. Silwood lies on high ground, surrounded by uninhabited wilderness. Much of it is relatively undisturbed, providing a refuge for wildlife and opportunity for ecological study. Silwood is fortunate in having about 100 ha of land with natural habitats including grassland, scrubland, mature woodland, three streams and a large lake. It is designed to provide the neutral particles, or neutrons, which result from nuclear reactions inside the reactor core. It is currently being decommissioned to allow redevelopment of its site. CONSORT design reactor is designated a 'low power research reactor'. The University of London's nuclear reactor was constructed here in 1965, expanded in 1971, and was the only civil research reactor in the UK. degrees in a wide range of ecological subjects. and M.Sc degrees in (1) Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, (2) Biodiversity IG., (3) Quantitative Biology or (4) Conservation Science, and for Ph.D. Silwood now houses a large graduate community of some 150 students, many from overseas, either studying for the M. ![]() In recent years, the Division of Biology has been created, whose Ecology and Evolution section is entirely based at Silwood. More recently, in 2001 the Department expanded further as Biology and Biochemistry were merged into Biological Sciences under the auspices of the new Faculty of Life Sciences. The Department of Biology was formed in 1981 (from the Departments of Zoology, Applied Entomology, and Plant Pathologists). Since 1947, the College's activities at Silwood have expanded continuously. Presumably no-one in 1940 anticipated a working life of over sixty years for these 'temporary' edifices. Some still survive the present Refectory is a gem of the period. Silwood was requisitioned as a military hospital and convalescent home during WWII, so when the College took it over in 1947 it was surrounded by bleak, but useful, single-storey wards and offices. It replaced the original Georgian house, built in 1790 for James Sibbald, when the grounds were landscaped by Humphry Repton, the most celebrated landscape designer of his generation. The Manor House is the second Silwood Park house, built in 1878, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, who also designed the Natural History Museum in London, South Kensington and Strangeway Prison. The existing manor house was comissioned by Charles Patrick Stewart. Stewart was keen on horse racing and partying, and built his new house around a splendid ballroom where, on race days and holidays, he would entertain the sons of Queen Victoria amongst other keen followers of horse racing. Imperial College acquired Silwood Park and Ashurst in 1947, as a Field Station to provide a site for research and teaching in those aspects of Biology not well suited for the main London campus.
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