5 mins with…Judith Moon

written by Alison Hilton, Marketing Officer This weekly series of interviews with MERL staff will focus on the day to day work of everyone involved in one way or another with the Our Country Lives project. As the project picks up momentum, more and more of what goes on behind the scenes will be about […]

Volunteers' Voice #1 – Introducing Rob and the MERL volunteers!

written by Rob Davies, Volunteer Coordinator. Hello and welcome to my first post. I’m Rob Davies, Volunteer Coordinator at MERL. I have been working with volunteers for the past four years in various organisations, from community radio stations to museums. I work with volunteers across UMASCS (University of Reading’s Museums and Special Collections Service) which consists […]

Craft Collections and Craft Connections

Written by Greta Bertram, Project Officer for A Sense of Place and Countryside21. MERL has a fantastic array of traditional craft products and tools in its collections, from such crafts as blacksmithing, wood turning, carpentry, lacemaking, leatherwork, pottery, stonemasonry, straw crafts, and wheelwrighting (plus many many more!). Many of these objects are on display in the Museum’s […]

MERL project news #1 – Hugh Sinclair papers now available

written by Hayley Whiting, Hugh Sinclair Project Archivist The papers of Dr Hugh Macdonald Sinclair DM, DSc, FRCP (1910-90) are now available at MERL.  This marks the end of nearly five years of work by me, the Hugh Sinclair Project Archivist. It has been a very interesting, challenging, and rewarding project funded by the Hugh […]

Research tip #1: if in doubt…

Here is the first in what we will become a regular series on the blog – research tips from the MERL library and archive team. Trying to find out about collections can be a difficult and frustrating business. Our online catalogues and finding aids are now very large and while it’s great to have so […]

MERL & MAE, the direction of Our Country Lives

Written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer for ‘Our Country Lives’. The Museum of English Rural Life is transforming, and our vision for the new direction and focus of the museum is reflected in our project title: ‘Our Country Lives’. I have been employed specifically to work on this project, and to help find a way […]

Ready for the John Tarlton exhibition

written by Jonathan Brown, guest curator. Jonathan Brown had curatorial responsibilty for MERL’s archive and photographic collections for many years. He is now a Hon. MERL  fellow. John Tarlton is coming. He is almost here. He is the subject of MERL’s summer exhibition, and it has been my privilege to have been involved in its preparation. […]

MERL's new blogging venture

written by Kate Arnold-Forster, Director of MERL and Head of the University Museums & Special Collections Service. After months of thinking, training courses, persuading and planning, (and a good deal of procrastinating) we have finally taken the plunge and decided to launch ‘Our Country Lives – the new MERL blog’.  Mainly through the efforts of Alison […]

HRH The Duke of Gloucester unveils landmark Land Rover at University Museum

MERL was delighted to welcome HRH The Duke of Gloucester on Thursday 21 March who unveiled the Museum’s latest acquisition, a stunning example of an early Series 1 Land Rover. Read the press release on the University of Reading website Sign up for our newsletter Get blogs, collections news, and shop updates straight to your inbox. Email […]