Professor Robert Alun Roberts Papers

A collection of essays and articles (draft versions), lectures and Welsh talks for radio on various subjects relating to agricultural botany, 1932 - 1969. There are also files on a weekly question and answer radio programme on which R. Alun Roberts was a member of the panel of naturalists, 1951 - 1969. There is correspondence that dates from 1925 to 1968; pocket diaries, 1920-1961; notes and research material e.g. copies of farm inventories and accounts; personalia e.g. CV; and off-prints of articles etc.

There are a number of miscellaneous items, and they include, farm accounts, 1853 - 1873; Sunday School minute book, 1889-1913; articles and newspaper cuttings etc.

R. Alun Roberts, born in 1894, was the first Professor of Agriculture Botany at the University College of North Wales. He developed an Honours Course in Botany and Agricultural Botany and was recognised as a figure with an unparalleled knowledge of the scientific aspects of land use.

He was a Welshman, who loved the countryside and was aware of the problems faced by farmers. He was a joint author of Commons and Village Greens, a study in Land Use, Conservation and Management based on a National Survey of Common in England and Wales 1961-1966, and his most well known Welsh publications are Y Tir a'i Gynnyrch and Hafodydd Brithion.

He retired from the chair in 1960 and died in 1969.

The collection has been incorporated into the General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts. It has been arranged according to record type and chronologically where possible.

wel eng

Description compiled by Elen Wyn Hughes, November 2001.

An item level typescript catalogue is available at the Archives Department of the University of Wales Bangor. Reference numbers : General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts : 20811 - 21046

Usual copyright conditions apply. Reprographics are made at the discretion of the Archivist.

For further radio scripts by R. Alun Roberts, consult the B.B.C. Papers, also held at the Archives Department of the University of Wales Bangor. Fonds level description available on the Archives Hub