Herbage receives Pb from the soil and the atmosphere. Studies on long-term experimental plots established at Rothamsted Experimental Station (southeast England) since the mid-1800s provide evidence that (i) atmospherically derived Pb predominates over soil-derived Pb in herbage collected from this rural UK location, (ii) changes in herbage Pb concentrations have occurred over the last century, (iii) recent temporal trends in herbage Pb concentrations reflect known changes in annual air Pb concentrations, and (iv) the enforced reduction of Pb added to petrol at the end of 1985 resulted in a decline in herbage Pb concentrations in rural UK locations.