As part of the East Midlands Oil Province, oil was found in eastern Nottinghamshire. It was also known as the BP Research Centre or the Geophysical Centre, part of BP's Exploration Division. The research centre was established in 1950. Its first employee was Jack Birks, later managing director of BP. From 1950 it was the main research site of BP, until BP sold the site in 1957 for £12,000. Research moved to Sunbury-on-Thames, in Surrey, in 1957. Sunbury had been built around the same time as the Kirklington site, in the early 1950s.