Doors set to open on rural museum

The museum boasts 22,000 objects from the last 200 years

The doors are finally set to open on a museum of English countryside life that has undergone an £11m makeover.

The new-look Museum of English Rural Life in Reading, Berkshire, will open to the public on Tuesday.

A three-year revamp was carried out and the museum moved to modern premises in Redlands Road.

More than 22,000 objects are on display at the museum covering rural life and work over the past 200 years, as well as more than one million photographs.

A horse wearing a gas mask is one of the pictures in the archive

A spokesman said: "The exhibitions are still in the process of installation and completion so this is a chance for visitors to come along and see a museum in the making."

The £10.89m development was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the University of Reading and public donations.

Roy Brigden, keeper of the museum, said: "The new museum provides a different experience to the traditional museums that visitors may be used to.

"It has been designed to spark the imagination, to allow people to simply enjoy the objects before them and to encourage them to think in new ways about what is largely a lost world."

The first temporary exhibition at the museum is Dig for Victory, held from its opening until the end of the year to coincide with the 60th anniversary of VE Day celebrations.