Weekly What's On: 13th to 20th January '14
Toddler time Friday 17th January, 10-11am, £2 per child, drop-in Suitable for families with children aged 2-4 Come along to the Museum with your little ones and enjoy rhymes, songs and craft activities. Collecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures Temporary exhibition space Free, drop in, normal museum opening times Since 2008 the Museum of English […]
Weekly What's On: 9th to 15th December, '13
Christmas trail until Friday 20th December, normal museum opening times Free, drop-in Suitable for families with children of all ages Pick up a copy of our free Christmas trail at reception and learn about Victorian traditions on your way around the Museum Toddler time Friday 13th December, 10-11am, £2 per child, drop-in Suitable for families with […]
Our Country Lives project update: Activity planning
Isabel Hughes, MERL Curator, updates us on the work on the ‘Activity Plan’ for our Heritage Lottery Fund project Earlier in the year, the Cultural Consulting Network was appointed to help MERL produce an activity plan as part of the Round 2 submission to the Heritage Lottery Fund for Our Country Lives. The first section of […]
Weekly What's On: 2nd to 8th December
MERL Annual Lecture: Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP ‘in conversation’ with Sir David Bell, University of Reading Vice-Chancellor Thursday 5th December 7pm, Great Hall, London Road Campus Free. Tickets in advance or on the door (Doors open 6pm. Bar and MERL ‘pop-up’ shop available) Click here for details Toddler time Friday 6th December, 10-11am, £2 […]
Weekly What's On – 25th Nov to Dec 1st
What’s on at MERL this week? Rural reads book club Thursday 28th November, 5.30-7pm Free. (£1.50 for tea & cake) Drop in and join this informal group discussing books on a rural theme. This month the book we’ll be talking about is Trespass by Rose Tremain. As there is no meeting in December, we have […]
The MERL Classification – what it is and why we’re updating it
Project Officer, Greta Bertram, explains more about the work she has been doing to revise the MERL Classification over the last few months. Classification systems are used by museums to organise data about their collections. The MERL Classification was devised by John Higgs, the first Keeper at MERL, in the 1950s. It was based on […]
Press release: Apples in abundance? Turn your surplus into juice at Uni Museum's Apple Day, Saturday 19th October
Press release, October 14th 2013 Wondering what to do with the extra kilos of apples from your garden tree? The Museum of English Rural Life has the answer! Bring your surplus apples to MERL’s Apple Day on Saturday 19th October and watch special guest Richard Paget press them into delicious juice. The Museum (MERL), which is […]
Our Country Lives Update
written by Sophia Mirchandani, Katie Norgrove and Jocelyn Goddard, consultants working on Our Country Lives We are founder members of Cultural Consulting Network, which provides professional consultancy services to the heritage and arts sectors. Specialising in research, evaluation, project development, funding and grants, we work closely with our clients to provide intelligent and workable solutions […]
New exhibition: 'Collecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures'
The new temporary exhibition at MERL is now open to the public. Collecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures is largely comprised of objects drawn from the Museum’s recent Collecting Cultures project. This ran from 2008 until earlier this year and involved the Museum’s curatorial team selecting items that connected in some meaningful way with the twentieth century countryside […]
"Strictly Fab" – Len Goodman joins MERL for Farmyard Fun
written by Guy Baxter, Archivist. Last Thursday was quite a day at MERL, with over 500 visitors enjoying Farmyard Fun with Miller’s Ark, who brought us their sheep, goats, pigs, geese, ducks (with their own paddling pool!) and colourful rare-breed chickens. It was also great to see so many visitors having fun with the animals […]