Soil clay mineralogy at Rothamsted began in the early 1930s, and quickly focused on technique, swelling minerals, micas and sorption phenomena. By the mid-1940s interest had extended to the formation and spatial distribution of soil clays with the move of the Soil Survey of England and Wales to Rothamsted. These themes continued for the next 40 years. Considerable contributions were made to crystal chemistry and structure determinations, and the relationship of these to the sorption and desorption of water and organic molecules, and the behaviour of soil K. The pattern of soil clay mineralogy was determined for large parts of England and Wales, and absorbed into soil mapping. The work on X-ray diffraction appeared in the Mineralogical Society Monographs on this subject. These, and the Monograph on Clay Chemistry, which reached their final form in the 1980s, are the lasting monuments to soil clay mineralogical research at Rothamsted.