Country Code
National Parks Commission, The Country Code (London: HMSO, 1951) This Country Code booklet was produced in 1951 as part of a suite of policy accompanying the creation of National Parks under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. Its publication was heralded by one member of the House of Lords at the time as […]
Farmers Weekly
The Farmers Weekly, ‘Britain’s Festival: Special’, 4 May 1951 The magazine Farmers Weekly was first published in 1934 and is still running today. It has long played a vital role in keeping the UK’s farming community up to speed with the latest developments in technology, policy, and practice. At the same time, it has served to […]
Clockwork Tractor
Ferguson, Demonstration model, circa 1949–1951 This model tractor was designed to demonstrate how the innovative three-point linkage technology on Ferguson tractors worked. This unique mechanism featured on the iconic TE-20 tractor or ‘little grey Fergie’ and made for a vehicle that was more stable and adaptable. Models like this enabled Ferguson agents, technicians, and distributors […]
Landscape Leader
Announcement, ‘The New President – Miss Brenda Colvin’, 1951 In 1951 Brenda Colvin became the first female president of the Institute of Landscape Architects. This extract from the Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects dates to November of that year. It includes the announcement of her leadership and a summary of her contributions to […]
51 Voices: Pleasure and Pain
This January, The MERL embarked on 51 Voices, a new year-long project celebrating the museum’s seventieth anniversary in 2021. Throughout the year, we will be working with a range of writers, artists and different communities to give contemporary voice to fifty-one objects and archives in The MERL collection connected in myriad ways to our founding […]
Farm Epic
Anthony Bernard Lees, Farm Epic (circa 1951) This small booklet provides an account of mid-century farm mechanisation using the patented ‘Ferguson System’. This equipment was widely promoted during the early 1950s, when it was displayed at the Festival of Britain and advertised prominently in the Southbank exhibition guide. The ‘System’ comprised the TE20 tractor with its […]
Obstetric Forceps
Stainless steel obstetric forceps, 1950s These obstetric forceps are among a handful of artefacts on loan to The MERL from the Berkshire Medical History Centre, the wider collection of which is housed at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. The forceps are part of a set used by a General Practice doctor in the mid-twentieth century. Like […]
Our Beautiful Island
Tower Press, Our Beautiful Island jigsaw puzzle, circa 1951 Subtitled ‘A Cottage in Somerset’, this jigsaw puzzle epitomises the kind of ‘chocolate box’ representation of rural England that we see presented in many different areas of popular culture. This is a very particular way of depicting the countryside as a rural idyll—timeless, nostalgic, and happy. This […]
Death to Pests
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Death to Pests poster, 1951 This poster was issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. It was printed for H. M. Stationary Office by J. Howitt and Son Ltd, Nottingham, and released in 1951. It was intended to encourage British growers to combat common vegetable pests. This postwar period was still […]
A Land
Jacquetta Hawkes, A Land (London: Cresset Press, 1951) This book was published just one month after the opening of the Festival of Britain. Its author, Jacquetta Hawkes, was a significant figure in mid-twentieth-century archaeology. In the same year she was also feted for her role as convener of the Festival’s People of Britain pavilion. Her book and Festival […]