Category: Agriculture: Crops: Cereals

March 1998

RECORDS OF E S BEAVEN (1857-1941)
Accession no: DX451
Catalogue mark: D BEAV
(See also TR GUI)

Introduction
Edwin Sloper Beaven (1857-1941) was one of the leading breeders of barley in the first half of the twentieth century. He was born near Heytesbury in Wiltshire and began working on his father’s farm there at the age of 13. Later Beaven became a maltster in Warminster, Wiltshire, and became interested in the quality of malting barley. In 1894 he purchased 4 acres of land at Boreham just outside Warminster and began to carry out experimental trials of barley. One outcome of his experiments was a new variety, Plumage-Archer, which was one of the principal types of malting barely until new hybrids, such as Proctor, were introduced after the Second World War. Beaven was associated with the brewers Arthur Guinness, Son & Co who took over his maltings and trial grounds after his death in 1941. Much of Beaven’s work was published posthumously in the book Barley (1947).

These records include some relating to work carried out by Beaven’s executors and trustees for the period 1942-1945.

Records deposited in January 1998 as a gift by John R. Young & Susan E. Oldham.

List compiled March 1998

Record Types
A1-5 Biographical and Personal
B1-3 Correspondence
C1-40 Research Material
D1-11 Reference Material
E1-15 Published Work
G1 Copy of Address

A BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL INFORMATION

A1 OBITUARY of E S Beaven in the twenty-second Report of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany. 1941.

A2 OBITUARY of E S Beaven by Herbert Hunter and published in the journal Nature (27 Dec). 1941.

A3 OBITUARY of E S Beaven reprinted from Journal of the Institute of Brewing. 1942. [2 copies].

A4 EXTRACT (hand-written) from Farmer & Stockbreeder which mentions Beaven and his pre-war tour of Herefordshire with Sir Daniel Hall and Prof. T B Wood. 1943.

A5 REPRINT of Herbert Hunter’s obituary of E S Beaven in The Journal of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany. 1944.

B CORRESPONDENCE

B1 CORRESPONDENCE between E S Beaven and the Board of Agriculture and fisheries. 1903-1916.

B2 CORRESPONDENCE between E S Beaven and W S Gosset. 1908-1914.

B3 CORRESPONDENCE relating to the sale and distribution of barley. 1911-1914.

C RESEARCH MATERIAL

C1-4 ANALYSES Experiments on Warminster Nursery barley crops
1 1907.
2 1909.
3 1910-11.
4 1912.

C5 FILE Analysis of Correlation, Biometrics, factors of production and “Chessboards”. c1912-c1934.

C6-31 ANALYSES BOOKS Experiments on Boreham Road barley crops carried out by E S Beaven
6 (unbound) 1913.
7 1914.
8 1915.
9 (unbound) 1916.
10 1919.
11 1920.
12 1921.
13 1922.
14 1923.
15 1924.
16 1925.
17 1926.
18 1927.
19 1928.
20 1929.
21 1930.
22 1931.
23 1932.
24 1933.
25 1934.
26 1935.
27 1936.
28 1937.
29 1938.
30 1939.
31 1940.

C32 ANALYSIS BOOK Boreham Road barley crops (including “Nitrogen Determinations”). 1919-1921.

C33-35 ANALYSES BOOKS Experiments on Boreham Road barley crop carried out by the executors and trustees of E S Beaven
33 1942.
34 1943.
35 1944-45.

C36 PLAN of Boreham Road field plots. 1938

C37 ANALYSIS BOOK Crop weight and migration. 1919

C38 ANALYSIS BOOK Effect of clipping field plots. 1921

C39 ANALYSIS BOOK Warminster field plots. 1921

C40 ANALYSIS of different varieties of barley. nd.

D REFERENCE MATERIAL

D1 REPORT of the Select Committee on Corn Averages. 1888.

D2 REPORT of the Select Committee on Corn Sales. 1891.

D3 REPORT of the Committee on Scottish Agricultural Prices 1901.

D4 PAMPHLET An Attempt to Find a Basis for the Improvement of the Barley Crop by R H Biffen. 1906.

D5 PAMPHLET On Testing Varieties of Cereals by “Student”. 1923.

D6 PAMPHLET Visit to Dr Beaven’s Barley Nursery and Field Plots at Warminster. 1930.

D7 FILE of articles by H M Lancaster entitled “The Maltster’s Materials and Methods” published in The Brewing Trade Review. 1933-1935.

D8 PAMPHLET Co-operation in Large-Scale Experiments. 1936.

D9 PAMPHLET Agricultural Research and the Work of the Agricultural Research Council by Sir William Dampier. 1938.

D10 PAMPHLET Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries “Growmore” Leaflet No 18 Cereal Varieties for Spring Sowing : with particular reference to Wales and the West Country. 1940.

D11 TYPESCRIPT Discussion on “Plot Technique”. nd.

E PUBLISHED WORK

E1 PAMPHLET Various Conditions Affecting the Malting Quality of Barley by John M H Munro & E S Beaven. 1900.

E2 PAMPHLET Fuel Consumption in Malt Kilns. 1904.

E3 PAMPHLET The Quality and Yield of English Malting Barley. 1905. [3 copies].

E4 PAMPHLET Pedigree Seed Corn. 1910.

E5 PAMPHLET Varieties of Barley. 1914.

E6 PAMPHLET Breeding Cereals for Increased Production, 1920. [4 copies].

E7 PAMPHLET Trials of New Varieties of Work. 1922.

E8 PAMPHLET “Beaven’s 1924” Plumage-Archer Barley. 1924.

E9 PAMPHLET Interpretations of Results of Field Trials. 1927. [3 copies].

E10 PAMPHLET A Physiological Study of Varietal Differences in Plants (Part I) by F G Gregory & Frank Crowther with an appendix by E S Beaven. 1928.

E11 LEAFLET Review of the Policy of the Institute (Institute of Brewing), 1929.

E12 PAMPHLET Boreham Road, Warminster; Barley Nursery and Field Plots, 1930 : Guide to the Various Cultures. 1930.

E13 PAMPHLET The Culture of Barley for Brewing. 1934.

E14 PAMPHLET Barley for Brewing Since 1886. 1936.

E15 PAMPHLET Boreham Road, Warminster; Barley Nursery and Field Plots. 1936.

G OTHER RECORDS

G1 ADDRESS Pure Races of Barley given by E S Beaven at the South Wilts Chamber of Agriculture. 1914. [2 copies]

Associated Material
Books in Rural History Centre Library by E S Beaven.
Barley : Fifty Years of Observation and Experiment (1947).