Biscuit recipe of the week: Picnic Café’s famous macaroons

by Alison Hilton, Marketing Officer and biscuit sampler. Phillippa at Picnic

Fans of Picnic Café in Reading will share my excitement about this week’s recipe, which owner, Jon Amery has kindly agreed to share. Picnic is supplying the cake for the tea tent at the MERL Village Fete again this year, and Jon will be a judge on the Biscuit Bake-off panel. We mentioned these weekly biscuit recipes a little while ago to Jon, hinted at our preference for Picnic’s delicious macaroons and held our breath! Apparently it was a topic of some debate amongst Picnic staff as to whether the macaroon could be classed as a biscuit. Thankfully, it seems it can!

Last week, Phillippa and I decided to prove our dedication, and visited the café for a working lunch, which obviously had to include the famous macaroon (and some apple cake!) … it’s a hard job, but someone has to do it!

Anyway, here is that very special and surprisingly simple-looking recipe from Jon, who has (sadly?) scaled down quantities to make just 10 golf ball sized macaroons:

Picnic’s Macaroons

Mix together 440g of ground almond, 300g of caster sugar (we use an unrefined organic sugar from south America) and 4 egg whites until consistent in texture.

Shape into golf ball sized balls and place on a baking tray ensuring a 1” gap between balls Push (don’t place as they will fall off!) a whole almond on top.

Pop in a pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes on 180 C or until golden brown.

Have a go and let us know how they turn out! If you’re brave enough to put your version in front of Jon, why not enter the Biscuit Bake-off at the Village Fete on May 31st?!

Rural Reads review #6: Harvest by Jim Crace

by Rob Davies, Volunteer Coordinator and Rural Reads regular.

Harvest-186x300In April, members of Rural Reads read Harvest by Jim Crace –  you can already guess the rural connection. Harvest was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2013 and had rave reviews, the quotes on the back of the book give it high praise. “One of his unquestionable masterpieces” states Phillip Hensher from the Spectator. At the beginning of the discussion I asked the group as a whole if they agreed with these positive reviews and everyone did!

Harvest tells the story of a small rural community during an undisclosed period. We debated over which time period and some of us believed it could be the mid-nineteenth century whereas others thought it could be late medieval. This absence of an exact time lends the author flexibility in his authenticity but also provides the story with a narrow vision, as the reader is unable to identify the wider context.

The narrator Walter Thicket, tells the story of how a village is unravelled within a week, exploring the whimsical natures of humans, how deceit and rumour can lead to betrayal and questions whether anyone can ever really trust anyone else?

From a ‘Rural Reads’ point of view this novel is perfect, the story begins at the end of harvest and goes through to the winter threshing. The narrator guides us through the rural customs of crowning a harvest queen, the celebrations of successfully completing a harvest, right through to the methods of threshing grain. I personally felt that the author was successful in conjuring life in a rural village, and portraying how the weather, beast and man were all connected.

The novel does hold darker themes than that of rural life; it works on the small community mentality and the author picks upon the weakest and most dangerous of his character’s emotions to play with. The group thought it was very much a gripping page turner, but were frustrated as they wanted to find out what happened next!

For May we’re reading one of my favourites, Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier. Join us for the next Rural Reads on May 29th at 5.30pm.

Please touch: Future handling collection at MERL

written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer.

One of the biggest complaints levelled at museums is that visitors cannot touch anything. Objects are put tantalisingly out of reach behind thin Perspex and glass, or an arms-length behind a velvet rope. It is annoying because objects are almost always meant to be touched, and especially so in our museum where many of our objects are made by hand or made to be used by hands. We have tools which benefit from decades or centuries of refinement to fit perfectly in the hand, as well as textiles, ceramics, pulleys and cranks which demand to be touched – their roughness, smoothness, ridges, pits, dimples or simply put: their texture, is often integral to understanding them. However this then runs up against the fact that if we let visitors touch everything, we soon wouldn’t have a museum left. We often ask our visitors not to touch because we have to ensure that the collection remains whole and in good condition for future generations to enjoy.

We looked at this smock as part of our workshop - it feels a lot better than it looks.

We looked at this smock as part of our workshop – it feels a lot better than it looks.

We spent a morning and part of the afternoon yesterday exploring this tension between preservation of our objects and all of the reasons why objects should be touched. It is obvious how simply by touching and interacting with an object you can learn so much more from it. By exploring a smock close-up you can see and feel the irregular hand-sewed seams as well as more fully appreciate the intricate detail of the smocking; by holding a flail you can feel how surprisingly light it is, yet imagine how heavy it may be after a day’s work (and the smoothness and many repairs of the flail showed it definitely had seen many a day’s work). There is also the fact that some people learn more from hands-on activities, and for people with visual impairments it is a necessity.

Would you like to handle some hands? Plaster casts of Joseph Arch's hands (MERL 75/16/1-2)

Would you like to handle some hands? Plaster casts of Joseph Arch’s hands (MERL 75/16/1-2)

It is fair to say, then, that people both specifically and in general can only learn so much by reading a label and looking at an object, and as such we are exploring the different ways in which we could have objects available to handle by group-booked sessions and normal gallery visitors. After looking at case-studies from the Manchester Museum, the Horniman Museum and the Museum of London, we began to look into the idea of volunteer-led handling opportunities within the galleries, as well as the logistics of creating a handling collection. Of course, we already do have some handling of objects at some events and visits, but it has usually been on an ad-hoc basis. However, the new galleries of MERL as part of Our Country Lives also mean we have a great opportunity to integrate handling into everything we do, and make it a permanent feature of the new museum. Our next step is to ensure we are targeting the right audiences with our handling opportunities, and decide what themes the handling collection should cover. We’ll be working with Charlotte Dew on how to plan and implement a new handling collection, who is helping us as part of our Arts Council England-funded project Reading Engaged.

Our Country Lives update: How we research

written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer.

You may have noticed that we’ve been a bit quiet recently about our HLF-funded redevelopment project, Our Country Lives. This is because we’re waiting for a response from the Heritage Lottery Fund due on June 13th (fingers crossed), but also because a lot of us have been busy catching up on other projects such as Reading Connections, Countryside21 and Sense of Place. country lives logoLast week, however, has seen the project kick-started again with a couple of meetings focusing on how we should be researching the stories and objects we want to put into the new displays, as well as how we should be marketing the new MERL. We’re also reaching a stage where I can give more detailed project updates, and this series of posts will probably focus more on the research-side of things, as well as some behind-the-scenes of how we go about delivering such a huge project as Our Country Lives. To recap our research so far, we spent a lot the 2013 winter and spring of 2014 getting to grips with the huge amount of objects and archives in the MERL collection. As well as trying to make sure we’re representing the countryside in all of its complexity and diversity, we have to make sure that we’re choosing the best objects and archives for the job, backed up by solid and current research.

One of our current gallery layouts (very much subject to change).

One of our current gallery layouts (very much subject to change).

The stories we want to tell about rural life are sometimes driven by our objects, archival documents, video footage, or other types of media. Sometimes a problem can be that we do not have any objects to illustrate stories we want to tell, but in our case our problem is having too many objects. Did you know we have around 26,000 objects, archives covering 4,500 linear metres and a library of over 50,000 volumes? It’s obviously a good thing that we have such a large and diverse collection, but this is also a double-edged sword. Our museum has no off-site storage, and so everything has to fit into the galleries, mezzanine storage, and a new duplicate store which is being built at the back. Because of this, much of our work so far has been trying to find a place for all of our objects so that our designers could decide where to put essential things such as walls and doorways.

This is one of the reasons why we are putting our wagons in a line along the north wall; as well as being a new and interesting way of exploring this nationally important collection, it is also one of the only ways to fit them all into the galleries. The only other option was to have a few wagons in every single gallery, which we thought would overshadow the other collections. As for the rest of the collection, we have been combing through our catalogue and placing our objects into the galleries and storylines best suited for them. You can see an example of one of our spreadsheets below, which will be the base from which we decide where and why to put our objects, including how they fit in with key messages, generic learning outcomes and storylines. We will also work from these lists to engage in more detailed research on specific objects and subjects contained within the new galleries. The storylines and topics we want to explore are by no means final, however, and so we will also be spending a lot of time in the coming months ironing out our topics, consulting with experts, and having lengthy debates about what is in and what is out.

An example of one of our object spreadsheets

An example of one of our object spreadsheets

Essentially, the planning and delivery an almost entirely new museum is difficult and complicated, but it is also a rewarding and refreshing experience. If you would like to know a bit more about this aspect of the project or the project as a whole, feel free to drop me an email at a.j.koszary@reading.ac.uk , and keep an eye out for future updates.

Weekly What’s On: 12th to 18th May

You can find full details of all our forthcoming events and activities in our What’s On and MERL Families guides, which are now available from the Museum or to download from our website You can also see all events on our online calendar

 

Albert BallPop-up lunchtime concert: Albert Ball’s Flying Aces
Tuesday 13th May, 1.10-1.50pm
Free. Drop-in
Refreshments available.
This term the University of Reading’s Lunchtime Concerts are on the move and ‘popping up’ at venues across all of the campuses. MERL is delighted to be hosting ‘Albert Ball’s Flying Aces’ who will be performing music and songs from the WWI era on, variously, guitar, banjo, mandolin, percussion and accordion. Find out more about them at
www.albertballsflyingaces.co.uk

 

Talks by visitors from Nanjing Agricultural University
Tuesday 13th May, 2-4.30pm
A series of talks by visiting Professors from the Museum and Institute of Chinese Agricultural Civilisation.
All welcome. Contact us for details. Email merlevents@reading.ac.uk or call 0118 378 8660.

 

Guided tourGuided tour
Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays, 3-3.45pm
Free, booking advisable
Let our fully trained tour guides tell you the stories behind the objects on display and visit the object store to see MERL’s hidden treasures.

 

 

 

HedgehogToddler time
Friday 16th May, 10-11am,
£2 per child, drop-in
Suitable for families with children aged 2-4
Come along to the Museum with your little ones and enjoy rhymes, songs and craft activities. 

 

 

B10349 MERL Vintage night poster IMGMuseums at Night: 1951 Vintage Night
Saturday 17th May, 8pm ’til late
£5/£3 concs (in advance Available online – How to buy) £6/£4 on the door
Join us for a night of live music, jive, cocktails, makeovers, craft and more…
For details visit our website

 

 

DennyReading University College: WW1 and beyond
Tuesday 1st April to 31 August, 2014
Staircase hall, MERL
Free, drop-in, normal museum opening times
Funded by Arts Council England as part of the Reading Connections project, and inspired by the University of Reading Memorial Book and Clock Tower memorial, this exhibition reveals the stories of the men and women with connections to the then Reading University College, who fell during the First World War. The exhibition also looks at the theme of War in a broader sense with interesting items from MERL and the SPecial Collections relating to other conflicts.
Part of our WW1 programme

 

greenhamCollecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures
Until Autumn 2014
Temporary exhibition space
Free, drop in, normal museum opening times
Since 2008 the Museum of English Rural Life has been adding even more objects to its collection, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures programme, in order to represent each decade of the last century. (Find out more in Curator, Isabel Hughes’ recent post) This exhibition gives a taste of what has been acquired and challenges visitors to suggest the modern-day objects that the Museum needs to collect for the future. The exhibition will help the Museum to explore how to incorporate more recent histories and representations of the English countryside into its displays as part of the new Our Country Lives project.

 

Biscuit recipe of the week: Chocolate chip cookies

Another recipe to practise for the Biscuit Bake-off, written by Alison Hilton

At the recent launch of the Biscuit Bake-off competition, Andrew Palmer’s wife, Davina, very kindly presented MERL staff with a signed copy of her book ‘Kitchen Diplomacy: 30 years of Foreign Service Cooking’. I was amazed to discover, on reading the introduction, that Davina seems to have lived her whole life in diplomatic circles, during his career Andrew has been Ambassador in Cuba and Rome, and during their marriage they have lived in 8 different countries including Bolivia, Canada and France! Davina’s book, then, is a fascinating insight into Embassy life – and of course, food!

Andrew & Davina Palmer decorating biscuits at the  Bake-of launch

Andrew & Davina Palmer decorating biscuits at the Bake-of launch

I was pleased to find that amongst some very special, classic and exotic recipes, there were also recipes for brownies, chocolate biscuit cake, and the humble chocolate chip cookies, which is the one I’ve decided to share today!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

(makes about 30)

75g unslated butter
75g caster sugar
50g soft light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
175g self-raising flour
A pinch of salt
50g plain chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

Heat oven to 190C/375F, Gas 5

Put butter in a food processor with both sugars.Process, add the beaten egg, sifted flour and salt and process again. Turn into a bowl and add the chocolate.

Drop little mounds of the mixture on to oiled baking sheets and bake for 12-15 mins until light golden.

A perfect recipe for trying with children and entering into our Biscuit Bake-off at the MERL Village Fete on May 31st.

Click here for previous recipes, and look out for a very special recipe next week!

 

 

 

Discovering the Landscape #5: Mawson’s ‘The art & craft of garden making’ (1900)

Written by Claire Wooldridge, Graduate Trainee Library Assistant

As progress continues to integrate the library and archive of the Landscape Institute into our MERL collections, here’s a brief look at another of our favourite items:

The art & craft of garden making by Thomas H. Mawson (London: B.T. Batsford, 1900)

A Country House and Garden, double page illustration from Mawson, 1900

A Country House and Garden, double page illustration from Mawson, 1900

In his first book, Mawson demonstrated his expertise as a landscape designer, who rose from humble origins to become the leader of his field, undertaking major commissions in Britain, Europe and Canada and in 1929 becoming the first president of the Institute of Landscape Architects.

Mawson, Art & Craft of Garden Making, 1900

Mawson, Art & Craft of Garden Making, 1900

Thomas Hayton Mawson (1861-1933) was a well-known landscape architect, garden designer and town planner thought by many to be the leading practitioner of his time.  In the early 1880s Mawson and his brothers established their own firm.  Based in Windermere, Mawson received commissions to design private gardens and as the firm grew took on work across the country.

By 1900 Mawson had achieved such success and acclaim to allow him to leave Mawson brothers and pursue landscape design independently.  Becoming the leader of his field, Mawson took on many high profile private and public projects, working for example for Queen Alexandra and the maharaja of Baroda.  His public works include Haslam Park in Preston and internationally the Peace Palace gardens at The Hague, which Mawson won a competition to design in 1908.

In the same year as leaving Mawson Brothers, the first edition of Mawson’s  The art & craft of garden making was published.  This ran to several editions, many of these are held here at MERL, with our holdings furthered by the acquisition of a first and second edition of the work from the Landscape Institute Library.

The first edition featured here is bound with the publisher’s original green cloth and is finished with beautiful gilt decoration.  The volume is illustrated with perspective views drawn by Mr. C.E. Mallows, chapter headings designed for the title by Mr. D. Chamberlain and extensive, varied and intricate depictions of plants, plans of gardens and garden ornaments.

Chapter 2 illustrated heading, Mawson, 1900

Chapter 2 illustrated heading, Mawson, 1900

 

Plan from Mawson, 1900

Plan from Mawson, 1900

Clearly concerned by recent treatment of the topic of landscape gardening, Mawson’s preface reveals his desire to restore the image of the practice in public perception and counter claims that beautiful gardens occur more by ‘accident’ than design.  I can’t help but wonder who Mawson might have in mind here… do get in touch if you have any ideas!

‘Garden making; it has been said is the only art which, owing to accidental development and un-looked for groupings, the realisation surpasses in beauty the original conception… a caustic critic seizing upon this statement has referred to landscape gardening as an art which relies upon accident for its effects.  Whilst not fully admitting the justice of this criticism… the writings and practice of many men who have undertaken to lay out gardens, have given cause for it… no such desirable object as garden making has suffered so much from the inattention of those who have been most capable of guiding and advising.’ – p. xi.

 

Mawson’s archival collection is held at the Cumbria Record Office, Kendal.

Volunteers Voice #11: Reviewing your volunteer programme

Written by Rob Davies, Volunteer Co-ordinator.

As in all aspects of an organisation, it is always a useful exercise to review your volunteer programme. This isn’t a review of the volunteers themselves but an overall review of the entire programme. A review enables you to take a step back from your day to day work, take a look at where you and your programme are heading and what improvements or changes need to be made. It is also useful from a strategic point of view and provides you with all those hard facts and figures needed for reports.

A review should cover everything from documentation, training, staff and of course asking the opinions of the volunteers themselves. We are constantly developing and changing, pushing further, growing organically, and reflecting the world around us. It is important that your documentation is up to date and accurate, reflects changes in your organisation and future goals you aspire to. I go through our four volunteer policies and our volunteer handbook with a fine toothcomb to ensure that details (e.g. phone numbers, members of staff) are still correct. I also change photos in the handbook to freshen it up a little.

Volunteers at Ufton Court

Volunteers and staff on a visit to Ufton Court

Of course, at the heart of any volunteer programme are the volunteers themselves; their welfare and happiness is crucial. Through experience I have found the best way to collate an accurate snapshot of volunteer happiness regarding the programme is an anonymous survey that should take between 5-10 minutes to complete. The survey asks questions about communication, support and training, as well as some open questions. This helps me look at the programme from a volunteer’s perspective and highlights any problems that need to be solved.

Alongside a written review I invite volunteers in for an informal chat. This isn’t mandatory but some like to chat face-to-face. It’s also important to gauge feelings and problems of staff as well as those of the  volunteers. I hold one-to-one chats with members of staff who work with or manage volunteers, where I encourage them to be as open and honest as possible. Again, this provides me with a different opinion of the volunteer programme and highlights any problems that I may not be aware of. It is also important for staff to feel they are supported with managing their volunteers and volunteer projects. Once you have completed the review, don’t sit on your results, act on them!

Weekly What’s On: 6th to 11th May

You can find full details of all our forthcoming events and activities in our What’s On and MERL Families guides, which are now available from the Museum or to download from our website You can also see all events on our online calendar

 

MERL Seminar series: The Great War & the countryside
The origins of the First World War: an historical perspective
by Jolyon LLoyd, Independent Scholar
Tuesday 6th May, 1-2pm
Free. Drop-in / register
Why not take the opportunity to see the Reading University College: WW1 & beyond display at the same time. (See below)
Click here for details of the full seminar programme

 

Guided tourGuided tour
Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays, 3-3.45pm
Free, booking advisable
Let our fully trained tour guides tell you the stories behind the objects on display and visit the object store to see MERL’s hidden treasures.

 

 

magic carpetToddler time
Friday 9th May, 10-11am,
£2 per child, drop-in
Suitable for families with children aged 2-4
Come along to the Museum with your little ones and enjoy rhymes, songs and craft activities. 

 

 

DennyReading University College: WW1 and beyond
Tuesday 1st April to 31 August, 2014
Staircase hall, MERL
Free, drop-in, normal museum opening times
Funded by Arts Council England as part of the Reading Connections project, and inspired by the University of Reading Memorial Book and Clock Tower memorial, this exhibition reveals the stories of the men and women with connections to the then Reading University College, who fell during the First World War. The exhibition also looks at the theme of War in a broader sense with interesting items from MERL and the SPecial Collections relating to other conflicts.
Part of our WW1 programme

 

greenhamCollecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures
Until Autumn 2014
Temporary exhibition space
Free, drop in, normal museum opening times
Since 2008 the Museum of English Rural Life has been adding even more objects to its collection, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures programme, in order to represent each decade of the last century. (Find out more in Curator, Isabel Hughes’ recent post) This exhibition gives a taste of what has been acquired and challenges visitors to suggest the modern-day objects that the Museum needs to collect for the future. The exhibition will help the Museum to explore how to incorporate more recent histories and representations of the English countryside into its displays as part of the new Our Country Lives project.

 

Crowning the May Queen – origins of a folk tradition

Inspired by our seminar series earlier this year, MERL Curator, Isabel Hughes, reflects on a timely example of intangible heritage from her childhood.

Earlier this year, MERL hosted a series of seminars under the banner of Untouchable England.   Inspired by the fact that the MERL collections may soon be packed away temporarily as part of the Our Country Lives project, we were exploring the less material facets of life in rural England.  The series covered dance, craft skills, dialects, magic and folklore.  Here is another example of intangible heritage from my childhood.

A few weeks ago I happened to meet my old primary school teacher.  She came from Ireland and mine was the first class she taught on arriving at the school. Whenever we meet she tells me what marvellous children we were and this time she had a photograph to show me.  It was of a group of girls crowning the Virgin Mary as Queen of the May.  I can remember being the one who did the crowning with a garland of flowers.  We all wore our white first Holy Communion dresses and one girl was a pillow bearer, carrying the garland destined for our statue of Mary.

May queen Isabel

I mentioned this to Ollie Douglas, Assistant Curator at MERL, as an example of old folk traditions maintained by Catholics.  He was highly sceptical that this ceremony was any older than 19th century and produced Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore that described such “Merrie England” reinvented traditions as evidence.  I was convinced that this crowning came from Catholic Europe and was much older.  It seems we were both right and both wrong.

The English tradition of crowning the May Queen does indeed seem to have its roots in the 19th century and was fuelled by the popularity of Tennyson’s poem “The May Queen.”  It seems to have evolved from a practice of selecting a “Lord and Lady” or “King and Queen” for a festival, carnival or just for the day.  Gradually women and girls became the focus and the May Queen celebration, by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, involved the coronation of a local girl or young woman who would preside over events with a group of “ladies’ to support her.

May Queen P DX323 PH1_M28_127

An image from the Collier collection held in the MERL archives

My ceremony at school was rather different.  The focus here was to honour the Virgin Mary.  She was the one to be crowned Queen of the May.  The Virgin Mary has held a special place amongst Catholics from the early days of the Church and crowning ceremonies go back centuries in the Eastern Church with the decoration of icons.  However, the May crowning from my photograph seems to go back to a rite first practised in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI.  Honouring the Virgin Mary during the month of May does seem to be more of a 19th century tradition too.  Devotion to the Virgin has always been linked with keeping Catholics on the straight and narrow and I read that the May devotion to Mary was promoted by the Society of Jesus (or Jesuits) in Rome to discourage immorality amongst its students.

There is obviously some link here – different ceremonies with different roots but looking suspiciously alike.  Growing up in West London it was certainly the closest I came to any sort of rural tradition.