Crowning the May Queen – origins of a folk tradition
Inspired by our seminar series earlier this year, MERL Curator, Isabel Hughes, reflects on a timely example of intangible heritage from her childhood. Earlier this year, MERL hosted a series of seminars under the banner of Untouchable England. Inspired by the fact that the MERL collections may soon be packed away temporarily as part of […]
Focus on Collections #5: Brewing Beer
Written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer. England is ale, and ale is England. It is an old adage, and people grasping at a description of ‘English culture’ very often reach for the low-hanging fruit of ale, pubs and Morris dancing (when they’re not already listing smocks, village greens and other aspects of the rural idyll). […]
Biscuit recipe of the week: Anzac biscuits
Since the recent launch of our Village Fete Biscuit Bake-off , we have started publishing a biscuit recipe each week to inspire you to practise baking biscuits and to enter the competition at the Fete on May. Our Librarians and archivists are digging out some interesting recipes from the MERL collections, and we’d also welcome […]
Picture of the month #9: Lambs
After watching ‘Lambing Live’, seeing lambs in fields on my way to work and cute pictures of lambs from @herdyuk, @farmersoftheuk and many more, every time I log on to Twitter, lambs seemed to be the obvious seasonal subject matter for our Picture of the Month post this time. One picture from our collections immediately […]
Biscuit recipe of the week: Rich Traveller biscuits
Welcome to our series of biscuit recipes to inspire you to take part in the Biscuit Bake-off at the MERL Village Fete on May 31st! At the recent launch of the Biscuit Bake-off, University student Deiniol Pritchard experimented with a Huntley & Palmers recipe for ‘University Rusks’, which everyone at the special Todder Time event […]
My Favourite Object #6: 'Check Rein' and Blacksmithing Tools
This post was written by Christina Avramakis, Project Assistant for our Sense of Place project. My role at MERL has been to accession and catalogue new objects coming into the Museum, and so I have been very lucky to get up close and personal with many interesting objects and stories. For this reason, it was difficult to […]
Student Spotlight #4: Joseph Arch hand casts
Maria Rabbani is a 2nd year Archaeology student at the University of Reading. The objects which I have chosen are the white plaster casts of Joseph Arch’s right and left hand. The length of the casts is 18cm and their breadth (across the knuckles) is 12cm. His hands look small and delicate, which may be […]
Student Spotlight #3: Lave Net
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Student Spotlight #2: Man Traps
Henrik Yau is a second year Archaeology student at the University of Reading, who chose to research our Man Traps because they caught his eye, because they looked dangerous and he had no prior knowledge of them. I’ve always loved going to museums. Looking at vast collection of objects always excited me as a child, […]
Student Spotlight #1: Veterinary Medicine Box
This is the first in a series of blog posts focusing on particular objects, researched by University of Reading Archaeology students as part of their course. Kelly van Doorn is a second year BA Archaeology and Ancient History student at the University of Reading. On completion of her degree, she hopes to take up a master’s […]