WPW040032 WALES (1932). View of National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, showing allotments, oblique aerial view. 5"x4" black and white glass plate negative.

National Library of Wales ARP Tunnel (off this image). Estimated location SN 59266 81395 A tunnel was dug under the NLW before WWII to store important items from Welsh museums. NLW and the British Museum. It is described in National Treasures by Caroline Shenton ISBN 9781529387438 There is a road probably running up to the tunnel from Llanbadarn Road, alongside a NHS building (SN 59235 81376) - it has been suggested the NHS building was originally used for unpacking the items and preparing them for storage

Summer House used by WPBS staff working on the outdoor experimental plots

In 1937,the gardens that are nearest in the picture were not allotments but experimental plots belonging to the Welsh Plant Breeding Station. The WPBS also occupied the land in front of the National Library and used it for experimental plots and seed multiplication.

The two glasshouses belonged to the WPBS. The more distant and larger one had railway tracks going to the outside so that plant pots could be taken outside and then brought in if it rained. This is the area that is closest to the present hospital's outpatients' entrance. The nearby and closer greenhouse was used for the artificial pollination of grasses using a completely new technique developed by T J Jenkin, which established the WPBS as a world leader in grass breeding. His grasses included the ryegrass S23, which was very important in improving grassland in the UK and an unlicenced version was grown in New Zealand. The technique was then used in the USA for breeding wheat