Working in willows had been isolated. The lively Pomology section of Campbell, Williams Wilson and Abbot et al was stimulating. Besides, the Pollination Programme of the 70s was all the rage and I was soon part of it. By 1972, my pollination field trials had convinced me of the need for shelter and the inadequacy of trees used commercially as windbreaks.

With Hudson's blessing we began a programme to investigate the value of fast growing easily propagated trees like willows and poplars to meet specific requirements for shelter in fruit, then vegetables, glasshouse crops, then amenity schemes. all branches of horticulture in fact. The Willows collection was an invaluable source of experimental material, particularly those clones acquired in the 1950s' pulp exercise.

By 1974 the programme had intensified to 87 types or combinations of trees, 7 km of windbreaks at LARS, and 30m external trials. English and continental willows did very well. Notably the range of growth and habit of willows could be manipulated to give shelter appropriate to the height of the crop to be protected. Research covered establishment, growth rate, culture, phenology, porosity and the period of maximum effectiveness.)

Being in the Pomology section also gave an insight into the hardy ornamental nursery stock trade and the programme of selection and improvement being undertaken. It was soon apparent that the willows collection contained clones of value for amenity trees for roadside, and new-town plantings. Nursery orders in the £10,000 range for willows became common place - think of new towns like Milton Keynes, Warrington -Willows everywhere, because they are cheap, easy to establish, relatively vandal-proof, with a wide range of foliage, catkins and stem colour.

There were also glimmerings of other uses in conjunction with civil engineering, the so called “bio-engineering” where plants are used to aid soil stabilization on slopes or to protect river banks from erosion etc... So by 1974, tree related research - one had not to mention the word Willow, had climbed back to 30% of our small section’s time.

And then in 1974, willows for biomass started. It was another of those paper-pulp in short supply times. But this time round perceptive agriculturists were realizing that the over-production of subsidized food could not go on indefinitely. The problems were acute in Northern Ireland and the new Director of Loughgall Horticultural Centre, George McElroy sought to find alternative crops for the poorer surface-water-gley soils. Willows (and poplars) for short rotation coppice for paper pulp seemed the best option. Miscanthus was rejected on the ground of the N. Ireland climate. It all has a familiar ring now, - but it was way-out in 1974.

Which willow? McElroy asked. We turned to the Collection and dug out some data on productivity, and guess what - those willows acquired in the previous willows for pulp exercise were the front runners, Bowles Hybrid, Korso and Germany, with some of Hutchinson's originals, and others I had collected since. It is worth stressing that the Willows Collection had provided the basic material for all the windbreak work, then the amenity willows and then selections for biomass. The moral is the incalculable value of working plant collections

Our early trials on biomass are chronicled in the Annual Reports of Loughgall and Long Ashton. We were heartened to find that willows did far better than anticipated on the poor soils available.

Then fate played into our hands. The oil crisis of the mid 70s led to a worldwide search for alternative and renewable sources of energy, giving our work a new relevance.

The Department of Energy through its Energy Technical Support Unit (ETSU) became the lead agency in the UK and began funding a modest programme of contract research. Unfortunately at that time, AFRC policy was against contract research, and so biomass remained only a modest part of our research programme. I have to admit that I came to regret that I did not at the time, pursue the ETSU contract opportunity, but in 1977 I had had my knuckles wrapped by the AFRC for accepting a contract from the Paper Industries Research Association for a feasibility study on coppice willows for pulp. They implied that one’s intellectual integrity was somehow impeached by tainted money, and it was only with John Hudson, our director’s intervention that I was grudgingly allowed to complete the study. So unfortunately, I had no incentive to seek contracts, -what a change from today’s climate of contract research.

In this period Sweden was emerging as a major proponent of willows for short rotation forestry for energy, initiating substantial research programmes and avidly collecting information and material in a field in which, unlike us, they had almost no native experience.

Long Ashton became a focus for sources of biomass clones, and they beat a path to our door thirsting for knowledge on clones, establishment, pests and diseases etc. It was all very exhilarating, but biomass was still only a small part of our research programme in the late 1970's.

One day an unknown Yorkshire farmer called Murray Carter dropped by, enthused by something he had heard from our friends at the Henry Doubleday Foundation. What a long way we have come, - Murray gives today’s keynote address. It was all very exhilarating but sadly the 1980s were trying times for willow research at Long Ashton.

Much is recent history and well known to some of today's audience and it is no use raking over the past. Suffice to say that against a background of increasing interest in willows, not only for biomass but also windbreaks and amenity willows, in 1980, MAFF economies forced them to withdraw their funding from our willow projects. Theoretically we were redundant, but with no means thought out for the station to implement it Then in 1982. the whole research station was threatened by closure. I must record that the Director, Jim Hirst wholeheartedly supported our endeavours, as did his successor, Ken Treharne.

The stumbling block to closing down willows was the National Willows Collection. It had to be preserved. Finally it was decided that it had to be transferred intact to Ness Gardens – Wirral, Cheshire and to Bangor University. So in the spring of the three successive years 1983-85, my assistant, Rodney Parfitt and I sent off some 600 clones, with the remit also to maintain the Long Ashton collection for a further two years to provide replacements.

Luckily with these years grace we were fortunate to secure an EEC contract with Belgium and Holland on the conservation of native willows in N W Europe, which helped to pay our way at the, by then reprieved, Long Ashton. The contract also added 80 or so selections of tree willows to the Collection. This international contract and the international links we forged lead to collaborative opportunities to help our cricket bat industry in its problems with watermark disease Erwinia salicis, and to create a structure and research programme based on Dr Turner at the University of East Anglia that is now serving both research and the industry very well.

In 1985 ETSU came to our aid with a significant contract to 1988 on the effect and costs of methods of establishment and weed control on the productivity and profitability of willow and poplar coppice. This really saved the day, and I completed writing up the results in 1989 in my new capacity as part time consultant, having just retired.

And so to the 1990s. Better times for willows at Long Ashton. My old fruit herbicide colleague, David Clay came to Long Ashton when the Weed Research Organization closed, and with Rodney Parfitt took up our old basket willow herbicide work to investigate applications for biomass on a rewarding scale funded by ETSU-DTI. Past work on diseases and pests, even back to Hutchinson’s time has formed a useful springboard for David Royle and his team in their investigations on the willow rusts that first struck the biomass crops in the mid 1980’s. Our entomologists David Kendall and Chris Wiltshire are at a similar stage, now that leaf beetles are proving so damaging to some biomass selections. Shades of Hutchinson and Kearns and their pest control research of the 1930;s. and of history repeating itself

Much of the current research has benefited from our earlier work with basket willows, even back to Hutchinson's times. Collaboration with Sweden continues, but now we are the recipients, Long Ashton being a centre for their newly bred clones, aided and abetted by Murray Carter. Rodney Parfitt is now in charge of this scheme and curating the Collection and has added many biomass clones to the Collection, which now numbers nearly 1000 clones.

And not only for biomass - there are exciting developments in willow basketry as an art form, park scale sculptures, the continuing uses of willow for amenity plantings, their value in the new urban forests, renewed interests by the Water Authorities in natural filters for waste water sewage treatments, special woven or living structures for noise abatement, other bio-engineering activities such as slope stabilization.

The Collection continues to play its part in all these innovations by providing initial test or propagating material. Who knows - the aspirations of the National Basket Willow Trades Advisory Committee in 1945 for 5000 acres of willows may yet come to pass. Sweden from scratch now has 25,000 acres - 10,000 hectares,(.but in the UK, note that from the NFFO contracts announced on 23 /12 /94, 5000 hectares , not acres, will be needed)

For me, willows, the symbol of sorrow, have had a happy ending. As the day proceeds, with the subsequent speakers, I'm sure you will agree willows have a better future than for years.but I can't help but say - it's been a bit touch and go.

K.G.Stott. September 1994