A Year on the Farm

Experience the farming year, past and present

Explore where food comes from, and discover how we farm crops and raise livestock in displays that touch on everything from sowing seed to animal slaughter.

Historic objects and archives reveal the range of processes tied to the changing seasons and where your food comes from, and we invite you to examine how humanity has overcome seasonality to ensure a wide variety of food is available year-round.

This gallery includes objects large and small from the past 200 years. Scythes, sickles, sheep shears, a harvest jug and shepherd’s coat sit alongside a wagon, a 1917 tractor and sheep dip.

A particular highlight comes in the form of a nineteenth century stick ‘carved by a poor shepherd’.

Digital Labels

Explore our virtual labels to find out more about some of the objects in the cases and displays in this gallery.

The MERL Google Streetview Tour

Activities in this gallery

: Can you get a high score by choosing ingredients for your dish that are in season and grown locally?
: Put the jigsaws back together to create the four seasonal book covers in the ‘What to look for…?’ series
: You are welcome to touch this sheep’s coat, which was knitted by one of our volunteers. How many different stitches can you count?
: You play the farmer in this touch-screen game. It’s your job to help the sheep give birth safely and look after their lambs. Can you keep them all alive?