top of page

Welcome to the site where you will find
the story of the laboratory that was the home of UK oceanography from 1949 to 1995.

The Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Wormley lab in the 1980s

                                                                                                             LATEST NEWS
October 2023                        - Pen Portrait of IOS Director Prof Henry Charnock added.

                                              - Donation of RRS Discovery surgical instruments to NOC archives

September 2023                   -  Website migrated to new host server (Wix) - Design has been changed and
                                                there
   are some changes from the earlier version .  Hopefully nothing has been
                                                                  lost

                                              -  New section "Lives remembered" with obituaries and tributes to NIO/IOS staff. 

                                              -  Addition of  "50 years after the Mid Ocean Dynamics Experiment"

                                              -   Gallery is still under construction.
28 MAY 2022                        -  Addition of article by Nic Flemming on Scientific Diving.   

THE LABORATORY
For 42 years from 1952 to 1995 the small community of
Wormley in the leafy countryside of southern England was the home of the major UK effort in deep-sea ocean science.   OCEANS WORMLEY was  for many years the laboratory's telegraphic address and seems an appropriate  name for this site.

THE WEBSITE'S CONTENT AND PURPOSE
This site has material relating to the people who worked at the National Institute of Oceanography, the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences and the IOS Deacon Laboratory, and the contributions they made to science and technology.  Initially a  group of around 100 former staff and others interested in the history of the laboratory were kept informed by a series of Newsletters.  These newsletters are not being continued but links to the Newsletters are provided below.

December 2010  : June 2011December 2011 : August 2012 : December 2012
This web site will continue to link these people and publish their recollections.

bottom of page