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Volunteers' Voice: Shreeya & Rasmi

Author
Alison Hilton
Published Date
June 4, 2015

Today’s Volunteers’ Week post is by Shreeya & Rasmi, students from a local secondary school, who volunteered to help us brainstorm ideas for the new museum. They ranked different types of interactives, compiled a possible teenagers’ book club reading list and a list of national days related to the museum that we could highlight on social media…

We contributed to different elements regarding the new renovations occurring in the museum. It allowed us to hone our creativity and gave us the valuable opportunity to explore our ideas, for which we are very grateful. This process involved quite a lot of researching and brainstorming, alongside the ability to come to conclusions justified by the evidence in front of us. For example, with the brainstorming for ideas regarding the interactive activities for the new museum where we attempted to enlist as many new means of attracting both demographics; whilst still evaluating whether our ideas will be successful or not.

We started our volunteering on January the 13th. We contributed one hour, every Wednesday for 16 weeks.

Although we enjoyed the whole volunteering experience, the activity we particularly enjoyed was  researching calendar dates relating to rural life as we got to acknowledge different dates such as “Kiss A Farmer Day”  we were once not aware of!

This volunteering experience gave us a platform to communicate our ideas which improved our interpersonal skills alongside providing us with an opportunity to further our potential. It also adds to our CV! It allowed us to broaden our horizons which hopefully will help us in our future.

Robert Davey
Author
Joe
/
Published Date
September 1, 2026

Remembering Robert Davey

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Merle the bat, asleep in a glove
Author
Joe
/
Published Date
August 19, 2026

So we found a live bat in our galleries (again)

Seven years after we gave a bat a library card, another bat has visited The Museum of English Rural Life.

three glass pint milk bottles
Author
Madeleine
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Published Date
June 15, 2026

Milking Time: Bacteriology and Pasteurisation

Explore the University of Reading’s role in dairying research into milk pasteurisation.

Richard Watts film archive
Author
Joe
/
Published Date
May 12, 2026

Watts in the Country: Inclusive Approaches to Rural Film (with the BFI)

We’re collaborating with film NGO Real Time, volunteers, and focus groups to bring the Richard Watts archival film collection to rural communities across Britain.

Author
Madeleine
/
Published Date
March 6, 2026

International Women’s Day 2026: Hidden histories

Discover the stories of three women curators, collectors, and designers in the 20th century.

Handwriting in a farm letter
Author
Joe
/
Published Date
February 25, 2026

Queer histories in the farm records

What can farm records teach us about same-sex relationships? Researcher Tim Jerrome shares his work exploring queer rural experiences.