14/09/2026
Why the heck did people in 1951 think it was a good idea to make The Museum of English Rural Life? Well...
The Second World War rapidly mechanised and industrialised the English countryside. The new face of farming became machines. Meanwhile, the traditional practices, tools, and knowledge that sustained communities for centuries faced becoming obsolete.
Yet there's so much we can learn from these old ways. And as we reevaluate what it means to better care for the land, the planet and each other, the past has so much to tell us about the future.
In a letter about our founding, John Higgs (our first Keeper) wrote: “gradually [...] old practices die, almost un-noticed and the equipment associated with them is frequently in danger of disappearing for ever.”
So, it became The MERL’s mission: to collect these tools and skills from the scrapheap of history, and preserve them for posterity.
We share a birthday with the long-running BBC radio drama The Archers. It’s no coincidence. The Archers began as a way of dramatising an English farming community adapting to new tech. We emerged to collect everything that was being lost. The wagons abandoned in fields.
If you can make it to Reading, next Tuesday lunchtime our curator Oliver Douglas will be running a gallery tour where he’ll lead you through the potted history of The MERL. It’s free, and everyone is welcome to come along.
If you can’t make it to Reading, fear not! Ollie has talked plentifully about our history as a co-host of our podcast, and we recorded two episodes at the start of 2026 that go into our 75th anniversary in detail ('Making the MERL' and 'Rural Britannia).
Join us on a whistle-stop gallery tour through 75 years of The MERL!
