When we drove the back way from our village, Backwell in Somerset, to Bristol, we would drive through a village called Barrow Gurney. At the end of the village was the turning for LARS, Long Ashton Research Station. This world famous research station was set up by the government in 1903 to improve the quality of cider, originally being called The National Fruit and Cider Institute . Local cider producers were struggling to produce consistantly good cider, the institute was set up to help.
They not only researched apples but also a lot of other fruits. During World War 2 they were asked to research an alternative to oranges. There was a shortage of oranges in Britain and a replacement vitamin c source was required. Ribena was born.
LARS made some big breakthroughs for cider, especially working out which apple varieties worked best and introducing shorter trees, easier to harvest! LARS was closed in 2003, one hundred years after it opened. The nature of LARS changed after the second world war and in the 1960's and 1970's it was reponsible for pioneering GM foods, oops not a popular move. It originally came from the trials that were run on apple trees. They were bombared with radiation in order to stop disease. When the research moved to wheat, the same techiques were used. The whole issue of GM came to a head in the late 1990's, Prince Charles called these foods "Frankenstein Foods"
As I young kid I was not so interested in the cider station, as my Dad called it. I was interested in the ghost story that was told about the junction where you turned off for Bristol. In the late 1950's a young woman was hit by a car early one evening. At the time the road was a lot higher, a resevoir was built and the road was lowered. A ghost of the young woman is said to appear about 6 feet above the road (the height of the original road).
There you have it LARS , GM and ghosts.
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