AFTER a two year closure and a £3.3 million redesign the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) has reopened its doors.

The Redlands Road based museum now boasts nine galleries that display 16,000 artefacts from across the last 200 years.

Items on show include a birthing and deathbed mattress and a Michael O'Connell wall hanging that hasn't been on display to the public since 1951.

As part of the redevelopment MERL now has state of the art digital interaction facilities to enhance visitors experiences.

The museums director, Kate Arnold-Forster, said: “We want to be a place that Reading is proud of and are very excited for the public to see what we have been doing.

“We hope to engage new generations with the rural past and present, and promote debate about the production of food and its future as well as becoming a place that people want to come to."

The museum is celebrating its reopening with a Grand Opening Festival this Saturday, October 22.

In conjunction with the reopening MERL have teamed up with Beat the Street to create a series of walking trails around the town.

The four routes begin at MERL and are lined with black birds. If ramblers can successfully count all the cut-out feathered friends, they can collect a prize from the museum's reception.

Trails are open from October 21 to October 30.