The absolute unit sheep.

Online exhibitions

Browse past displays from The MERL and exhibitions exclusive to our website.

We constantly add new exhibitions throughout the year, so check back regularly to discover more about English rural life and our collections!

Migrant workers: hidden rural mobilities

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Detail from a watercolour sketch showing workers standing or bending over rows of green growth in a field, picking individual daffodils by hand, with a line of trees and hills in the background and birds in the sky.

Our Green Stories in the Galleries

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An old image of a honey bee with some historic writing beside it.

In Conversation with Bill Hooks

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A small bill hook with a wooden handle lying on top of a larger blade

Fast Fashion: Then and Now

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2011_78_img_001 Sewing machine hero image for fast fashion exhibition

Extra.Ordinary

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A beekeeper's suit

Lantern Slides of the Open Spaces Society

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A group of beech trees and vegetation on the edge of a pond.

Cardew | Shonibare | G.A.S

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Migrant workers: Summer on a strawberry farm

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Detail from one of 30 ink and watercolour sketches by Sarah Hannis providing insight into the daily lives of migrant agricultural workers who came to the UK in 2021.

1918 Allotment, Oxford

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Close up of snail on a leaf from JC Niala, 'Portal: 1918 Allotment' (Fig: Oxford, 2022), p.2

Migrant workers: The raspberry planter

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Detail from one of 30 ink and watercolour sketches by Sarah Hannis, provide an insight into the daily lives of migrant agricultural workers

‘Be ye kind to one another’: rural togetherness in times of crisis

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A Friendly Society festival.

Changing Perspectives in the Countryside

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