Heritage Open Days: Behind the scenes at Special Collections

As part of last weekend’s national Heritage Open Days event, MERL and Special Collections offered ‘behind the scenes’ tours, from a look round the Victorian biscuit baron home to a visit to the special collections and object stores.

The tours began outside; the light drizzle didn’t seem to put anyone off, and large umbrellas allowed them to take a look at the building that forms the foundations of the current MERL/Special Collections site: the Grade II listed building originally known as East Thorpe. East Thorpe, which now forms the central part of the current site, was the home of Sir Alfred Palmer of the Huntley and Palmers biscuit company.

East Thorpe was designed and built by the architect Alfred Waterhouse between 1880 and 1882, and Alfred Palmer lived there with his family following his marriage. This building was later acquired by the University, and was extended to form St. Andrews Hall, a University hall of residence. The hall believed to be the first English hall of residence outside of London to provide female-only accommodation. It closed in 2001.

After a look at the former stables from the front (now open access library rooms), tour group trooped inside to see the former entrance hall, morning room, drawing room and dining room. These rooms are now the Special Collections Reading Room, but you can see remnants of their former use in their exquisitely tiled fireplaces and the serving hatch to the former kitchen.

On Thursday and Friday, the tour groups then headed down the hallway and into our rare book and archive store, where archivist Nancy Fulford had pulled out a selection of some of our more interesting items. The groups got to peek at some of our Great Exhibition Collection, peer over our Book of Hoursand first edition of Hooke’s Micrographia and look at some of our new acquisitions. On Friday and Saturday, groups were led into the object store of the Museum of English Rural Life, where they got to see the thousands of items that explore rural life, from farming to crafts to technology.

If you missed Heritage Open Days, you can still book onto a tour of the museum on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. We’ll also be offering Victorian Christmas guided tours in December -taking you back to join the Palmer family and their staff in celebrating Christmas 1882. Keep an eye on our What’s On pages for more information. In the meantime, if you’re interested in the history of the buildings, you can visit our online exhibition.