Collection SB - Strawberry Breeding Collection

Extent: 13 boxes

Records of Daniel Boyes' work at Cambridge were sent to Hedley Williams by Sidney Dark of Cambridge in 1974. Mr Howard Jones of Kingsley Fruit Farm sent his own records and catalogues on his retirement in 1976. Peter Matthews oversaw the transfer of the collection to Long Ashton in 1979-1980, and subsequently deposited Williams' correspondence (1983). Williams' notes and the earlier records probably also came to the archives at around this time but the deposit is not recorded.

Relate to the 'Cambridge' strawberry varieties. Hedley Williams worked with Daniel Boyes on these, and brought the last Cambridge crosses to JI as the basis of the JI strawberry breeding programme.

Three discrete sub-fonds relating to each location. Each contains a large main series (annual-chronological) of lists of crosses, scoring etc. with no natural sub-divisions.

Admin History: A strawberry breeding programme was begun by Sir Rowland Biffen at Cambridge in 1928. Daniel Boyes, Director of the Plant Breeding Station of Cambridge University's Department of Agriculture, was in charge of the programme from 1930 to his retirement in 1951. The breeding programme was then transferred to the John Innes Institute at Bayfordbury, where it was continued by Boyes' former assistant, Hedley Williams, until his death in 1979. The breeding material was then sent to long Ashton Research Station. As space in Cambridge was limited and the land unsuitable for starwberry growing, a sub-station was established at Kingsley Fruit Farm, Bordon, Hampshire (Mr C Howard Jones) in 1944, for field trials of Boyes' selections. Mr Jones was subsequently responsible for naming and distribution of the resulting 'Cambridge' strawberry varieties. Varieties and breeding When strawberry breeding started at Cambridge, the UK crop was dominated by just two varieties, stocks of which were increasingly succumbing to what was subsequently recognised as virus. The aim of the new programme was to widen the choice of varieties, while at the same time producing a range of similar seedlings that could replace initial selections which were lost to disease. A collection of American varieties was acquired in 1924, and these, with the predominant UK variety Royal Sovereign, the species Fragraria chiloensis, and later Early Cambridge, were used in the new breeding programme. Early Cambridge (later called 'Cambridge Early') was a seedling from Biffen's original crosses. The Cambridge programme under Boyes produced a large number of named cultivars, the most successful of which, Cambridge Favourite, dominated the UK market for many years, while several others were also important, either nationally or for particular areas or growing conditions. Varieties still available in 1957 were Cambridge Aristocrat, C. Epicure, C. Late Pine, C. Premier, C. Prizewinner, C. Rearguard, C. Regent, C. Rival, C. Sentry, C. Vigour. Some of these are still (Feb 2001) available from specialist nurseries. In Hedley Williams' work at JI, an additional aim was selection for disease resistance. William's varieties were Merton Princess, Merton Ruby, Merton Herald, Merton Dawn, Harvester, Hedley. As far as is known, none of these has been particularly successful, although Princess was grown on a small scale in the UK and overseas, and Hedley is regarded as a good jam variety. Williams himself thought highly of Merton Dawn.