Opening 5/2/19Maria McKinney: Sire.
Find out moreEvening visitsThurs 31st Jan, open to 9pm
Find out moreEvents at The MERLFind out what's coming soon...
What's on?The Museum of English Rural Life is now open!
The MERL is now open after a £3million redevelopment project, which has radically transformed our public displays.
The new Museum challenges perceptions about rural England by revealing the historical and contemporary relevance of country life. Come and discover our new interactive, immersive galleries which explore questions of identity, environment, technology, culture and health.
- The Museum is now fully open, following a major redevelopment, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
- Free Admission
- Redlands Road, Reading
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Did you know
...city families used to pick hops on holiday?
Hop picking holidays allowed city families to earn money. Pickers were paid with tokens, which were used in local shops or exchanged for wages.

Did you know
...Elizabethan mattresses were used for both childbirth and corpses?
Mattresses, plaited from sedges, were made to support a mother during childbirth or a corpse after death. After use it would have been burned.

Did you know
...farmers used to sow seeds by fiddle?
Sowing by hand can be slow and inaccurate. Seed drills were developed in the 1800s to sow seeds quickly in a straight line at regular intervals.

Did you know
...Lady Eve Balfour (1898-1990) was one of the earliest organic farmers and co-founded the Soil Association?
Women continue to play a key role in this movement, with organic farms employing significantly more women than chemical farming.

Did you know
...Suttons Seeds invented the seed packet?
The local Reading firm, founded in 1806, popularised paper packets of seeds for gardeners.

Did you know
...villages often used to run their own fire services?
The National Fire Service was only created in 1941.

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