It started with a sheep
Written by Audience Development Project Officer, Rhiannon Watkinson. It all started with a large plastic sheep. Not the most conventional opening to a story, I grant you! In fact I should say it started with a large plastic sheep, a brand new museum, a shepherd’s hut and a fabulous volunteer. What do these things have […]
‘The Poetry Survives’: Lindsay Anderson’s ‘Foot and Mouth’
Written by Jack Thacker, Poet in residence. Two months into my time as residency at the MERL, and I’ve discovered a wide range of objects and archival documents to inspire my poetry. The process, so far, has been one of gathering: which hand tool might prompt a poem, which diary or artwork can I mine for […]
Mental health in the countryside
Our Wellbeing and the Countryside display is on until October 31, and was launched to coincide with World Mental Health Day on 10 October. The display is the culmination of research in the archives at both the MERL and the University of Reading Special Collections, interviews exploring experiences of living and working in the countryside, and a consultation […]
Beekeeping, not just a hobby
Science engagement volunteer, Eilish Menzies, considers beekeeping and the role that it plays in food production. Walking through the MERL galleries you can see the crucial role bees play in past and present global food security. By simply taking a stroll through the collection, you can really get a sense of the progressive steps that […]
Going digital: Reading Museum and the MERL team up
The digital world is not coming, it is already here. In fact, it has been here for some time. Online shopping is king, Google knows where you live, almost everyone has a smartphone and the President-elect speaks primarily through Twitter. But being able to use smartphones, graphic software, websites, social media, apps, tablets, Windows, Macs and […]
Evacuees visiting The MERL
On 28 November 2016, The MERL welcomed seven evacuees and their families to the Museum. The evacuees had agreed to allow the Museum to include their stories in the evacuee interactive and the day was designed to thank all involved for their participation. The day included showing the evacuees the interactive for the first time, […]
In the Garden: Reading Tree Wardens and MERL
It’s not every day that you spend the morning looking at trees, but recently a group of MERL staff did just that. Looking for information to be able to create interpretation in the gardens, we had called upon the expertise of the Reading Tree Wardens (http://www.readingtreewardens.org.uk/). So on a gloriously sunny day back in July, […]
Cricket farming Q&A with Newtri Foods (Part 2)
This is the second and final part of a Q&A with Matt Grant and Matt Hardy – Co-founders of Newtri Foods. Newtri Foods aims to be one of the first companies in the UK dedicated to the farming of crickets and the creation of cricket-based products (flour, protein bars and whole crickets) exclusively for human […]
Cricket farming Q&A with Newtri Foods (Part 1)
The founders of Newtri Foods talk to science engagement officer, Robyn Hopcroft, about cricket farming in Part 1 of a Q&A about their edible insect business. Edible insects have been touted as the next big thing in food. Even the United Nations has recognised edible insects as a “promising alternative for the conventional production of […]
Volunteers' Voice: Work Placement – Daisy
Daisy tells us about her work placement at MERL and the benefits of volunteering after university. The question of what to do with my life after I graduate has been particularly pertinent this week as, on Tuesday, I received the results of my history degree. I got a first, in case you were wondering. Even if […]