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. We explore the history of rural England, its communities, and its people. Chaotic Good.

MuseumReading, Berkshire, UKmerl.reading.ac.ukJoined February 2009

5,817 Following

156.2K Followers

The Museum of English Rural Life’s Tweets

May 10

Most of the walks this week are fully booked but find out more about this fantastic new Festival for Reading at visit-reading.com/whats-on/seaso

May 10

What a wonderful way to start

@livingreading

#ReadingWalksFest on our Five Ways to Wellbeing Walk connecting with nature around

London Road Campus. Thanks to those that joined us and to Charlotte for leading the walk!

Walkers ready to start at The MERL entrance

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walkers in dappled sunlight under a cherry tree touching its bark

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walkers in the London Road cloisters looking at the large London Plane tree

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Walkers in the MERL garden standing in a circle (looking up the Merlin bird identification app)

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May 9

Smocks at the ready...

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What's On Reading

@RDGWhatsOn

May 9

13-21 May is @TheMERL Fashion Week - a week of events and activities inspired by their sewing machine and textile collections. There will be new displays, reminiscence sessions and events looking at ideas to combat the impact of fast fashion. whatsonreading.com/venues/museum-

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May 4

May the forks be with you #MayThe4thBeWithYou #StarWarsDay

A selection of pitch forks displayed on a wall at The Museum of English Rural Life

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May 4

MERL Curator

@OllieDouglas

is looking forward to talking to families arriving for the

Children's lecture 'Wind of Change' about some dairy-related objects we've brought from the museum

MERL curator Ollie douglas looks between a MERL banner and a Museums on Wheels banner behind a table with some MERL objects

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Or maybe you're following a great Bank Holiday tradition and going to a vintage rally? We'd love to see your tractor pics!

Find out everything you need to know about planning a visit to The MERL galleries, shop, café, garden, or reading room.

What better time than a Bank Holiday weekend to gen up on your tractor facts! Come and see our fine specimens for yourselves (We're open Saturday and Sunday but not Monday)

merl.reading.ac.uk

Visit us - The MERL

DYK that the initial design of the modern day tractor took inspiration from the Victorian bicycle? In our latest blog, read about the origins of this iconic agricultural tool, and learn how The MERL’s collections can cultivate your own research: bit.ly/MERL-tractors

This grey Ferguson Tractor was found as a mess on a scrapheap by a retired teacher at Rycotewood College. He enlisted the help of students to repair and restore the tractor to working condition. At a later date, it was purchased by The MERL with the help of the Science Museum.

The tractor was probably manufactured in 1948. It is one of the earliest types built by the Standard Motor Company at their Banner Lane plant, Coventry.

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It's always a pleasure to see these young people enjoying the garden and learning about growing food. (We'd better get the cream ready for those strawberries!)

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Claire Boyce

@Bitzy1995

Apr 26

@CranburyCollege @TheMERL Thank you for a fantastic session with our pupils today. Amazing listening. Awesome planting of strawberry plants. Quiet and calm feeding of the chickens whilst chatting with them. #ThisisAP #OneTrustOneDream

Apr 27

We're delighted to be embarking on a second series of events working with this fantastic group of young people.

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Phillippa Heath

@PhillippaMHeath

Apr 25

Beautiful to be reunited with the young people of our Together Stronger project @TheMERL tonight. With partners Admiral Nurses, @YPWD & @UniofReading, this arts, heritage and well-being programme supports young people whose parent or carer is living with early onset dementia.

Apr 26

We're looking forward to being there! We're taking some objects along too. Come and find out more from curator

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Join us for a fun, free 1-hour event for 7-12 year olds at the @UniofReading Whiteknights campus next Thursday afternoon. Our Spring Children's Lecture looks at how stopping cows burping so much could help tackle climate change! Book your place now: reading.ac.uk/events/Feed/20

A close-up view of the faces of five black and white cows, with illustrated bubbles saying 'burp!', 'pop!' and 'parp!' as part of an advert for Wind of Change: Curbing Cow Burps to Fight Climate Change.

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Apr 25

Amazing work by Y7 students. All very worthy arguments!

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Adam Lines

@AdamCLines

Apr 24

Every single group had their own take on arguing for the preservation of their @TheMERL object. I’m *so* very proud of them for tackling the research (some going back thousands of years) and for coming up with novel ways of presenting. This is not an easy decision! twitter.com/msunderyhistor…

Apr 22

Our Earth Day event is in full swing with families having fun learning about biodiversity and creating creatures to add to #TheWildEscape collective artwork. Come and join us with

Art Fund and Arts Council England, South East

@BBOWT

and

@NatureNurture_

until 3pm #Rdguk #EarthDay2023 merl.reading.ac.uk/event/earth-da

Children with their creatures ready to upload to the wild escape collective artwork (with daisy the sensory cow in the background) at The MERL Earth Day event

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Children getting up close to nature with Nature Nurture

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Family playing the bee game in the MERL garden

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Museums Partnership Reading's projects that are part of Our Green Stories will be inspiring activities in our #EarthDay2023 event tomorrow. We look forward to welcoming

@NatureNurture_

@BBOWT

and you! #rdguk #TheWildEscape Find out more merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2023/04/e

Children wearing bee masks dance around an adult dressed as a daffodil in the MERL garden as part of the Create a Buzz project

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Then enjoy a lovely pot of

@Tregothnan

tea in the cafe, too. 🫖☕️🫖

Making Rural England gallery - The Museum of English Rural Life

And see it in our 'Making Rural England' gallery

merl.reading.ac.uk

In this gallery you may be empathising with the fight for workers’ rights one moment, and revisiting your childhood memories of the countryside the next.

This enormous teapot was designed and made by Michael Cardew at Winchcombe Pottery, Gloucestershire in the 1940s. Find out more about it merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/ce

It's National Tea Day. Will 29 litres be enough? #NationalTeaDay

A giant 29.5l ceramic teapot on a metal stand from the MERL collections (MERL 60/638/1-3)

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How fitting that a reader should notice this today, when we are celebrating animals around us with

for #TheWildEscape Almost as pretty as

@V_and_A

's flock of pretty birds!

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Reading Sheffield

@readsheffield

A happy and fruitful morning, sitting under this splendid peacock, @UniRdg_SpecColl @TheMERL.

And on Saturday at our #EarthDay2023 event we'll be celebrating bees and sharing the wonderful artwork created by local schoolchildren as part of our

#TheWildEscape 'Create a Buzz' project. merl.reading.ac.uk/event/earth-da

Exquisite watercolour and ink drawings of bees from the Cowan bee collection https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/cowan-bee-collection/

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But they are not our smallest contribution #TheWildEscape

An extremely, exquisitely small toy cat from The MERL collection. It stands beside a ruler, marking that the cat is smaller than 1cm.

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These little guys win for cutest factor though #TheWildEscape

Lambs at a feeding trough, from the Eric Guy collection in the MERL photographic archives P DX289 PH1/294

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But maybe this ox is even finer

This is a print from a lithograph of a painting, entitled ‘Portrait of T. W. Coke and North Devon Ox’, by W. H. Davis, c.1837, animal painter to the Queen from 1839. The ox was bred at Holkham in Norfolk and was considered to be the perfect specimen. (MERL 64/96) https://merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2015/10/consuming-the-fat-cows/

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Today we're celebrating UK’s biodiversity with

by sharing some of the favourite animals in our collection, as part of #TheWildEscape Surely there is only one we can start with? #AbsoluteUnit

The large Exmoor ram or 'absolute unit' that rose to fame in 2018 https://merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2018/04/history-behind-absolute-unit/

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Art Fund

GIF

Help us imagine a better future for wildlife #TheWildEscape Let’s get Twitter buzzing with animals from museum & gallery collections across the UK Here are some of the amazing animals in museums that we’ve been proud to support over the years Now show us what you've got

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Apr 8

We hope you enjoy whatever special culinary combinations you're celebrating with this weekend. 🥚🍋🥚🍋🥚🍋🥚🍋🥚🍋🥚🍋🥚🍋🥚🍋 (We're closed until Tuesday, so see you then!)

Apr 8

66.5K archive images in the 'social media approved' folder on our database, and not one Easter egg. Instead, we offer you this 'meal featuring a boiled egg and lemon curd' from the

@FarmersWeekly

collection. Please enjoy.

Black and white photograph of a boiled egg with the top cracked off in and eggcup on a plate with a spoon, surrounded by lemons and a jar with a handwritten label that reads 'lemon curd'. A ceramic chicken overlooks the scene. (P_2FW_PH2_223_3)

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Apr 5

Our volunteers have also prepared herbs and other plants to sell, so you can now take a little piece of The MERL garden home with you...

Plants such as curly parsley for sale in the MERL garden

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Apr 5

Looking after soil and bees in The MERL garden this Spring... Read our latest blog, part of Museums Partnership Reading's 'Our Green Stories' campaign, to find out what our gardening volunteers have been up to lately... merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2023/04/g

A large wooden bee hotel in the woodland area of the MERL garden.

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Apr 3

All of us at The MERL and

Arts Council England, South East

are delighted to be continuing our partnership and we're looking forward to working with

@SloughMuseum

and other arts and cultural partners in Slough and Reading too! #LetsCreate

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@ace_southeast

Apr 3

Today we officially welcome the organisations that will make up our National Portfolio for 2023-26!!

Over three years we'll invest £74.7 million in art, creativity, and culture in the South East

Let's find out about some of our region’s NPOs… THREAD

#LetsCreate

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Mar 30

As part of

@ChangingNetwork

(Changing Landscapes Research Network), we asked academics and MERL staff about their personal connections to the countryside. Please enjoy this exhibition which explores their 'landscape biographies' and research. merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/online

A black and white photograph (MERL P TAR PH3/2/8/4/73) from the John Tarlton collection in the MERL archives, showing cows in a snowy field with a church and houses in the background. The village is Winterbourne Houghton, near Blandford

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Mar 28

'Museums, My Way' was developed last year with the help of

@autismberkshire

as part of our

@ace_national

funded Museums Partnership Reading programme, as a joint initiative to improve access to The MERL &

@ReadingMuseum

Mar 28

We're looking forward to the next session on Monday!

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Uni of Reading

Museums, My Way is a series of free sessions @theMerl for neurodivergent visitors to enjoy the museum at a quieter time and take-part in activities at their own pace. The next session is on Mon 3 April - book now at merl.reading.ac.uk/event/museums-

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This has been so much fun! Find out more about 'Create a Buzz' and see the artwork created by schoolchildren who have been working with us and

, at our free Earth Day event on April 22nd, part of our 'Our Green Stories' campaign merl.reading.ac.uk/event/earth-da

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Phillippa Heath

@PhillippaMHeath

What memories and what a buzz! Brilliant to work with friends @NatureNurture_ and Alfred Sutton Primary School @TheMERL as part of #TheWildEscape. Together 'Create a Buzz' explored bees & habitats, through collections, creativity & within our garden.

100 years ago, led by the National Union of Agricultural Workers, striking farm workers in Norfolk secured a minimum wage for agricultural labourers... Read about this, and the evolution of rural protest, in our online exhibition bit.ly/40hw4T8

A black and white photograph of members of West Norfolk farm workers union on strike raising their hats in front of a banner that says 'Unity is Strength'

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Mar 23

This is very exciting!

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What's On Reading

@RDGWhatsOn

Mar 23

JUST ANNOUNCED! Gaia - Luke Jerram’s world famous Earth artwork - comes to Reading Town Hall this June as part of Reading Climate Festival 2023. Measuring seven metres in diameter, Gaia features high-resolution NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface whatsonreading.com/gaia

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Mar 20

This was a very clever move by the students because it means they have ended up with exhibition merch in the gift shop! (Just ignore the cows (if you can))

Mar 20

Their lead image is an oak tree from the stunning Cheshire wall-hanging on display in the Our Country Lives gallery

The Cheshire wall-hanging on display in the Our Country Lives gallery at the MERL. Can you spot the oak tree?

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Mar 20

Every year, 3rd year

Museum Studies students curate their own exhibition inspired by our collections. This year, in 'Among the Trees' they have chosen to explore the relationship between humans and trees. merl.reading.ac.uk/event/among-th

Detail of an oak tree from the Cheshire wallhanging by Michael O'Connell on display in the Our Country Lives gallery at The MERL

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Mar 18

These are just a few of our favourites, find out about all our resources and workshops for schools, colleges and learners here: merl.reading.ac.uk/learn/schools-

school children playing on the wooden tractor in the garden at The MERL

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Mar 18

And finally, explore the role of changing technology on farms and the impact of technological change on food production merl.reading.ac.uk/learn/schools-

A black and white archive image showing haymaking in the 1940s

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