Using the Site

Palace Leas is managed by Dr. Robert S Shiel of The School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development at Newcastle University. The site is maintained by staff resident at Cockle Park experimental farm, 18 miles North of the University. The site is available for use by everyone. If you wish to obtain material from the site or place instruments there then you should contact Dr Shiel directly. If publication of results can be undertaken jointly then no charge will be made for use of the site. However, all additional costs of technical or laboratory time and consumables will be by prior agreement. If there is to be no joint publication of results then a full commercial charge will be made for use of the site by any staff outside the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.

There is a full agro-meteorological station approximately 400 m from the plots and this has a daily data record from 1898 to the present. Dr Shiel also holds a considerable volume of unpublished data from the plots and this can be used on the same terms as the field data.

Below (CLICK TO ENLARGE) and above left: An old plan showing arable acreage at the beginning of the tenancy by the County Council, the meteorological station and lay-out of earliest trials.