Collection: Museum of English Rural Life

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The object collection was established formally in January 1951 and has been expanding actively since that date. It comprises a core of carefully selected artefacts that were made, used, or collected in rural England, or which relate in some representational way to English rural life.

  Key figures in the historical development of the collection include: Lavinia Smith and H. J. Massingham, key collectors whose private museums formed the founding core of the Museum’s collection in 1951; John Higgs, the first Keeper, whose work played a major role in shaping the collection in its formative years between 1951 and 1957; Andrew Jewell subsequently built up a strong holding of heritage crafts. Roy Brigden, whose three decades of work at the Museum oversaw a long period of careful but passive acquisition, a phase of reasoned and considered rationalisation, and a later period of targeted and deliberate acquisition, motivated by a decision to broaden collecting to acquire depictions and wider impact of C20th rural life and culture, controversies relating to the countryside, and to represent changes in technologies which are otherwise hard to acquire due to their size.Some acquisitions have come into the Museum via larger deposits to the MERL archive.

  Key disposals and transfers over the years include a number of horse-drawn vehicles. These object exits created significant space for expansion of the collection by acquiring other, smaller objects. In addition, a onetime ‘permanent loan’ of a large body of bee-keeping equipment from the Bee Research Association, was returned to the organisation when the Museum requested that they either donate it fully or it be returned. The Museum no longer enters into permanent loan arrangements. An ongoing programme of rationalisation of collections held by the Museum continues to take place.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: Not known

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  There are no supporting collections and all artefactual holdings are managed as one entity and to the same rigorous standards. A system of assessment is used to designate appropriate subsets of this body as suitable for use in different levels and types of hands-on engagement activity.

  This collection covers the period 1750 to the present day. The principal subject categories and object types covered by this collection include:

  Farm tools, implements, and machinery

  • Field hand tools for looking after the land and for raising and harvesting crops
  • Larger field implements and machines drawn by horse or mechanical power
  • Ploughs, both horse and tractor-drawn
  • Horse drawn wagons, carts, and transports
  • Steam, internal combustion engine and other power sources used on the farm
  • Pipes and tiles for field drainage
  • Spraying and other equipment for crop and plant protection
  • Models of farm implements and machines

  Tools and equipment for farm-based processing and marketing of produce

  • Threshing and processing of crops
  • Preparation of livestock feed
  • Production of butter and cheese
  • Bottles and packaging for marketing of milk, cream, eggs etc.

  Tools and equipment for management of farm livestock

  • Horse harnesses, shoes, and brasses
  • Milking and dairy equipment
  • Sheep, pig, cattle, and poultry management
  • Veterinary equipment
  • Pest and vermin control

  Material from agricultural service industries

  • Manufacturers of agricultural and related tools, implements and machines
  • Producers of seed, fertiliser and the like.

  Tools and products of rural and heritage crafts and industries

  • Woodland crafts and trades, including forestry
  • Baskets and basket making
  • Wood, straw, metal, leather and textile crafts

  Artefacts relating to life and work in the countryside

  • Including cooking, furnishing, gardening, childcare and education
  • Costume, particularly farm labourers’ smocks
  • Employment, recreation and leisure
  • Countryside organisations, particularly friendly societies, clubs and unions
  • Toys, games and models that depict or reflect rural life

  Paintings and prints depicting aspects of life in the countryside

  • 19^th century portraits of farm livestock
  • Studies of farm and rural practices
  • Posters relating to the countryside
  • Material reflecting the place of the countryside in wider society
  • Satirical, stylised, nostalgic, or otherwise inflected representations of country life
  • Artefacts and ephemera illustrative of significant social of cultural events or milestones connected with country life
  • Props and print media materials relating to media portrayals of country life
  • Works of contemporary art collected occasionally if directly relevant to the collections and programming activity of the Museum

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date:

  Licence: CC BY-NC