Press release: Wolfson grant to help MERL display hidden treasures
Wolfson grant helps Uni Museum display hidden treasures Visitors to the Museum of English Rural Life will soon be able to discover some of its more hidden treasures thanks to an award of £175,000. The Museum (MERL), which is owned and managed by the University of Reading, is one of 40 museums across the country […]
Weekly What's On: 27th Jan to 2nd Feb
You can find full details of all our forthcoming events and activities in our What’s On and MERL Families guides, which are now available from the Museum or to download from our website You can also see all events on our online calendar MERL Seminar series: Untouchable England The Full English: unlocking hidden treasures of England’s cultural heritage Malcolm Taylor, […]
Psychology students' research project: children's word recognition in museums
Over the Autumn Term we had the pleasure of hosting a psychology research project at the Museum of English Rural Life for two University of Reading undergraduates, Alex Tait and Laura Postlethwaite. Alex and Laura used a selection of objects from the Museum’s collection to explore how children learn new words in a museum setting. […]
Weekly What's On: 20th to 26th January
This week’s What’s On includes links to our new events guides and details of the new seminar series which starts tomorrow… Our new What’s On guide to events and exhibition at MERL is now available to download from our website. Find out about our full, fascinating and fun programme of public events from now until […]
Volunteers Voice #8: Plot plans for 2014
Our two gardening volunteers, Tony and Roger, spent the last year transforming our plots into bee friendly areas, designed to encourage bees into our garden and to show visitors how easy it is to support them. Tony and Roger have kindly written a post for us about what they have in store for 2014… Following […]
Pictures of the month #7 – Floods in Berkshire
Photographic Assistant, Caroline Benson has selected 2 particularly topical images from our collections this month… The subject of this month’s photographs will seem all too familiar to many people living by the Thames. They show the floods of November 1895 in the riverside village of Pangbourne in Berkshire. Small boats & punts can be seen […]
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 […]
Gerry Westall
It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the death of our longest serving volunteer, Gerry Westall, who passed away peacefully shortly before Christmas. A former employee of Sutton’s Seeds and a well-known local historian, Gerry brought an enormous depth of expertise and knowledge to the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) during […]
'Life on canals': a Takeover Day exhibition
On Friday 22nd November, the Museum of English Rural Life worked with the Institute of Education and took part in Kids in Museums’ Takeover Day. Throughout the day we welcomed Year 5 and 6 students from Geoffrey Field Junior School, Reading, and invited them to explore artefacts in the collections that relate to canal life […]
Pictures of the month #6 – Canal life
Photographic Assistant, Caroline Benson has resisted the temptation to select a festive image this month, instead sharing images she discovered whilst preparing materials for an education session last month… The photographs this month are from a collection depicting canals & canal life. The two I have chosen were amongst a selection used by Philippa Heath, […]