News
NFU centenary exhibition opened by University old boy
October 7th, 2008
Three generations of a Wokingham farming family opened MERL's new temporary exhibition to celebrate the centenary of the NFU, the leading trade association for farmers and growers.
Soft fruit and vegetable grower Donald Gray, aged 87, of Grays Farm, Wokingham, opened ‘The NFU 1908 to 2008’ at MERL on Tuesday. He was accompanied by his son, Peter, who currently runs the farm, and his granddaughter, Rhiannon Gray, a BSC land management undergraduate at the University of Reading.
Donald Gray comes from a family that has been farming for more than 100 years. He is both a long-standing NFU member and a Reading old boy (alumnus), having been a horticulture student at the University in the mid 1930s. He is pictured here, sporting his Reading blazer, with Keeper of the Museum, Roy Brigden and his granddaughter.
Mr Gray said: “It is an honour to open this exhibition to celebrate 100 years of the NFU. I was at Reading University 70 years ago and I studied Horticulture, a two-year-diploma course.”
The family were given a private tour of the Museum by Keeper, Roy Brigden, and Donald was presented with a book about the NFU centenary and an NFU tie. Being teetotal, however, he didn't touch a drop of the NFU Centenary ale!
The exhibition features material drawn from the NFU’s national archives, which are in the Museum’s care, and the exhibition is open from October 7 until December 23. The exhibition charts the importance of this farming organisation over the course of the twentieth century, through two world wars and into the era of the Common Market and the EU.
Find out more information about the exhibition: NFU 1908 to 2008
MERL celebrates a busy summer!
This August was our busiest month since moving in 2005 from the University's Whiteknights Campus to our current location in Redlands Road.
It has been wonderful to see so many people visit the museum in recent months, especially families, enjoying the garden and the many interesting objects on display. Both children and adults had great fun during our events, from the kitchen science demonstrations linked to our the Food, glorious food! exhibition to the 'Ugly bug ball', proving the museum really has something for everyone and is a perfect place for families to come and enjoy interesting activities together.
Visitor numbers have been increasing every month as MERL becomes a major attraction in Reading, both as an interesting and fun place to visit, as well as an educational venue.
The next major event to combine family fun and educational opportunities will be Apple Day on October 18th, when visitors will be able to come along and take part apple related games and activities, well as learn about the history of English apple varieties. Also in October there will be half term workshops and Halloween events, so there are plenty of opportunities to come along and join in the fun.
Food, glorious food! A new exhibition about the history of food at home opens at MERL
July 2008
A new exhibition, Food, glorious food!, about the history of food in the home, opened at MERL on July 1st. Using the Museum’s historical objects and archive material it looks at the ingredients, food skills and equipment that were once a part of everyday domestic life in the countryside, and which today have adapted to meet the culinary needs of a diverse, modern Britain.
The range of objects in the exhibition highlights how different the ‘gadgets’ of the past were to the kitchen paraphernalia of today. They show how curing your own bacon, baking your own bread (without the help of a machine!) and making your own butter were all part of everyday life, and remind us how much we now take for granted when we open a packet or tin!
This exhibition will give visitors the opportunity to reflect on these changing attitudes to cooking and eating and to take inspiration from the skills and traditions that, once essential, could perhaps now help us respond to the environmental challenges surrounding food production and preparation.
MERL receives Heritage Lottery Fund Collecting Cultures award
June 2008
The Museum of English Rural Life has been selected as one of only 22 museums and galleries across the UK to benefit from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s £3 million collection development initiative, Collecting Cultures.
The MERL project, Collecting Rural Cultures, will be using the £95,000 funding to build a picture of English rural culture in the twentieth century. The project will track through the century, decade by decade, collecting signal items that speak powerfully of that era. And for each decade, a different expert is going to produce a commentary on why those items stand for what was happening in the countryside and happening to rural culture at the time.
The Heritage Lottery Fund awards come under the Fund’s Collecting Cultures scheme which is designed to help support acquisitions, curatorial skills, research and increased public involvement. MERL was chosen from 95 museums and galleries who submitted applications and is one of only two projects in the South East.
For further information, read the press release issued by the University - University Museum awarded lottery grant for new English culture project
New MERL Fellow appointed
May 2008
Dr Clare Griffiths, Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Sheffield, has been appointed to be the Sir John Higgs MERL Fellow. She has a background in rural and agricultural history, with particular interests in agricultural policy and rural politics. Dr Griffiths' books include Labour and the Countryside: the politics of rural Britain 1918-1939.
Her work as MERL Fellow will focus on the photographic collections to look at the changing image of farmers and farming during the course of the twentieth century. The results will include both an academic article and a public exhibition.
The Sir John Higgs Fellowship is funded in 2008 by the Arkleton Trust and the Palmer Trust.
New toddler group launched
March 2008
The first session of our new Toddler Time was held on Friday 28 March. Several families came along to show that it's never too young to bring your little ones to MERL. The session was run by Bekky Moran, MERL's Learning Manager. There were farmyard songs, puppets and the children made shakers from recycled bottles and seeds, before heading off around the Museum to search for the stuffed rats!
The drop-in Toddler Time sessions (for families with children aged 18 months to 4 years) will take place at from 1 to 2pm every Friday during school term time, so why not come along to enjoy craft activities inspired by objects in the collection or our garden – where you can also have a picnic and let off steam!
Find out more about our Family Friendly activities.