The research work relating to helminths, which has been conducted within the Helminthology Section of the CTVM, often in collaboration with colleagues from the tropics is reviewed and placed into a historical perspective. The research has, in the main, concentrated on the trematodes Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica and the cestodes Taenia saginata and Taenia solium, but work on other parasites including gastro-intestinal nematodes is also considered. All of these parasites are of obvious veterinary/economic importance particularly in the tropics and subtropics. While the zoonotic importance of T. saginata and T. solium has been recognised for many years, it is only more recently that the zoonotic impact of Fasciola spp. has been generally acknowledged.