Past & presentExplore the story of rural England
Plan your visitWhat's it like to farm in the Lake District?Forty Farms, our new exhibition
Discover nowFree outdoor learning
for children over 5Green Explorers
Book nowSchools and CollegesThe magic of
The MERL
Explore our schools programmeWelcome to The Museum of English Rural Life
Discover the history of the English countryside and its people.
Visit us in person in Reading or explore our collections online.
What's on
Charles Hasler: A Mid-Century Designer and Collector
Exhibitions- February 4 - May 30
- Museum Opening Hours
- Free
No need to book
Did you know
...city families used to pick hops on holiday?
Hop picking holidays allowed city families to earn money. Pickers were paid with tokens, which were used in local shops or exchanged for wages.
Did you know
...Elizabethan mattresses were used for both childbirth and corpses?
Mattresses, plaited from sedges, were made to support a mother during childbirth or a corpse after death. After use it would have been burned.
Did you know
...farmers used to sow seeds by fiddle?
Sowing by hand can be slow and inaccurate. Seed drills were developed in the 1800s to sow seeds quickly in a straight line at regular intervals.
Did you know
...Lady Eve Balfour (1898-1990) was one of the earliest organic farmers and co-founded the Soil Association?
Women continue to play a key role in this movement, with organic farms employing significantly more women than chemical farming.
Did you know
...Suttons Seeds invented the seed packet?
The local Reading firm, founded in 1806, popularised paper packets of seeds for gardeners.
Did you know
...villages often used to run their own fire services?
The National Fire Service was only created in 1941.
Blog
Learn about the countryside, past and present. See how we work with people today to share new ways of understanding rural history.
The Road Ahead: our new Fellow, Dr Jo Clement
Dr Jo Clement joins as our new MERL Fellow
Voices: introducing our 2025 programme
Highlights to look out for in the first half of 2025
Thomas and Austen: a gay relationship in the MERL archives?
For LGBTQ+ History Month 2025, researcher Tim Jerrome shares the first finding from his MERL research into same-sex relationships in the countryside
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The Museum of English Rural Life
University of Reading
Redlands Road
Reading
RG1 5EX
