Community Gardening: Sow What?
Our latest community project explored how gardening and cooperation benefit wellbeing.
Cattle, colonialism, and conversations about land
MERL Curator, Dr Ollie Douglas explores connections between The MERL and British agricultural influence in East Africa following a trip to Kenya and Tanzania last year.
Glow Up! St Andrew’s Staircase Hall Redevelopment Project
For the first time in twenty years, St Andrew’s Hall has been presented anew. Visitors – including University staff, students and the general public – can now discover books, archives and artworks from the Museum of English Rural Life’s Library and Archive, Special Collections and University Art Collections.
Ploughs and Ploughing: some reflections from the headland
On Plough Monday, MERL Curator, Dr Ollie Douglas, discusses his appearance on Radio 4 Farming Today’s special programme on ploughing, and the MERL’s collection of ploughs.
Advising the Nation: the MAFF bulletins
As the project to catalogue The MERL’s collection of bulletins published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is completed, Collections Librarian, Claudia Ricci explores the history and significance of the publications.
Yule never baa-lieve it: a case for the Yule Goat at Christmas
The MERL’s Collections Researcher, Tim Jerrome investigates pagan influence on Christmas traditions, and asks why we don’t include the Yule Goat in our celebrations in England.
The MERL is going Further Afield
Collections Researcher Tim Jerrome introduces our newest project at The MERL, Further Afield, which trials new approaches to community driven museum outputs, working with groups who have been historically underrepresented in the countryside.
Full Steam Ahead!
Learn about the 100,000+ agricultural engineering drawings held at The Museum of English Rural Life and the University Special Collections.
Launching the Youth Manifesto
As museums across the country celebrate Kids in Museums’ Takeover Day, we are taking the opportunity to share Museum Partnership Reading’s Youth Manifesto, a short film made by young people expressing their views on our museums and how they could be more relevant to them in future.
From Britain to South Africa (and back again)
Discover fascinating details from a recently digitised series of extraordinary mid-century photographs that provide evidence to fill gaps in the history of some of the most iconic items now held in the collection of The MERL.