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The Museum of English Rural Life Profile picture
The Museum of English Rural Life
@TheMERL
We explore the history of the English countryside and its people. Chaotic Good. Part of @UniofReading. See our pinned tweet for new posts.
6 subscribers
Apr 29, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Please can they be friends Drawing of a chicken in trousers. Frolicking through the streets of medieval Europe, settling for nothing but the finest pairs of trousers a boar and a chicken can buy.
Apr 27, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
If you're looking to take a break from Twitter but not from The Museum of English Rural Life, then consider subscribing to our newsletter!

Receive content, stories and photos from our collections straight to your inbox.

Warning: may contain sheep.

merl.reading.ac.uk/newsletters/ A shepherd holds two lambs. And when we say 'may', we mean 'WILL'
Nov 9, 2021 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
When was the last time you saw a cow? Not in a photo. Not on Minecraft. A real mooing cow.

For many people in Newcastle, the answer is every day, because there's literally 1,000 acres of common land in the city centre, where cattle have grazed since the 12th century.

(a thread) A photo of Town Moor, Newcastle. (image credit: Wikimedia, taken by Chabe01)
Nov 9, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
gm to everybody but especially this sheepdog riding a trailer and clearly having the time of its life we like to think that the sharply-dressed farmer is the sheepdog's personal driver, taking the pup to the destination of its choosing
Sep 15, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Okay but what would people wear to The MERL gala? we would struggle to find an outfit because we are a building
Aug 26, 2021 • 24 tweets • 4 min read
please note this is NOT candy Photo of a brick from The MERL collection. like a good book, never judge a brick by its cover
Aug 25, 2021 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
if this asteroid would slow down even just a tiny bit we would love to invite them to The Museum of English Rural Life

edition.cnn.com/2021/08/24/wor… next time it comes close to Reading perhaps it could just pop in
Aug 18, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
a friendly request for visitors not to try to use the Magna Carta to seize The Museum of English Rural Life

theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/a… [twenty-five 13th century barons rock up at the museum entrance]

not again
Aug 17, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
we, for one, welcome our new woolly overlords Photo of two sheep. These two extremely woolly characters are Devon Closewool shearlings (meaning that they have only been shorn once before).

Here's a Closewool closeup.
Jun 15, 2021 • 19 tweets • 6 min read
The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and we have found something wonderful in our archive that we want to share with you.

Like many of the best things in life, it is all about bees.

(a thread) Close-up on Sladen's illustrations. In 1892, there was a sixteen-year-old boy who loved bees very much. Not so much that he became a bee, but he did become a renowned and widely published bee expert.

His name was Frederick William Lambert Sladen. And this the story of one of his earliest works.
Jun 14, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This year, we’re celebrating our 70th anniversary with 51 Voices: a year-long exhibition, available for you to view online, featuring 51 new interpretations of parts of our collection.

In our latest blog, learn about the five new responses added to the exhibition last month! be nice, say hello, share the space
Jun 9, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Prime Bacon Photo of Optimus Prime.
Jun 9, 2021 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
an important aspect of rural England's history is cows receiving rosettes for being so exquisitely rectangular Photo of a very rectangular cow. Cows Receiving Prizes is a Netflix show we would certainly watch
Jun 7, 2021 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
Friends! This week is #MuseumWeek, a celebration of museums and galleries across the world, with a different theme each day.

Today’s focus is on beginnings, so please join us for a journey back through time as we revisit the earliest, MERLiest days of our museum.

[thread] The front of The MERL build... Our story begins in the late-1940s, with two potential museums trying to find support.

That's right: this is A Tale of Two Museums. And we're not joking when we say that the first of these two museums was named The MELT.
May 27, 2021 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Next month, we're celebrating Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month (#GRTHM).

We will be exploring the contribution of travelling people to rural society, their community, and their heritage. Romany Gypsies, for instance, have been in Britain since at least 1515.

(thread) Photo of a gypsy family. This photo of a Gypsy family was taken by John Tarlton in Essex, likely in the 1950s.

We don’t know who the family were, and whether they lived in the wagon ('vardo' in the Romani language) or used it occasionally.

We would love to know more about the stories within this image.
May 26, 2021 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
For our youngest visitors, we now have brand-new Friday Fledglings activity packs available from The MERL gift shop! 🐣

Discover a new pack each week, created by the Fledglings team and introducing children to the natural world through activities, stories, and crafts. extremeley 🐣 wholesome 🐤 content 🐥
May 11, 2021 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
Leonardo DiCaprio unrecognisable in new Martin Scorcese film Photo of a sheep. Gangs of New Pork
May 10, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Everyone, big news: we are welcoming visitors back to our galleries from 18th May!

This is part of the joint reopening of Museums Partnership Reading (consisting of The MERL and @ReadingMuseum).

Head to our website to plan your free visit and make your booking today! we were about to hit send when one of our colleagues messaged us to say that The MERL iPad password has been FOUND

Jan 14, 2021 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Good morning everyone but especially to #ThisPig A very square pig in our collection. This extravagantly square pig, a portent of squareness, lives rent-free in the mind of each and every LEGO brick. Even the bravest Bionicles tremble in awe at the thought of it
Aug 4, 2020 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
Right now, a lot of folks are talking about cottagecore, an aesthetic category romanticising the rural idyll.

This is (almost literally) our field of expertise.

So, this morning, let's chat cottagecore and, specifically, a cottagecore icon: uh, Marie Antoinette.

[a thread] A painting of Marie Antoinette. (painting by Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, @KhmWien, accession nr Gemäldegalerie, 2772)
Jun 15, 2020 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
pigs but as you scroll they get longer — a thread A pig at a county show. Pig at a county show.