Hop pickers in Hereford and farmers ploughing fields with horses in Snowdonia: Heartwarming nostalgic photos show Britain's lost rural era

•The Museum of English Rural Life in Reading recently underwent a £3million Lottery-backed refurbishment

•The visitor centre started in the 50s when Reading University staff realised how fast the area was changing

•There are more than one million photographs and 25,000 antique objects on display at the museum

By Sadie Whitelocks

A broom-maker in a flat cap carves wood by hand, a milk man on a pony and cart collects metal churns from the roadside and a family pick hop flowers.

These are just some of the nostalgic images captured in black and white over the past 60 years by the founders of the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading. They provide a fascinating insight into a long lost, almost forgotten rural tradition in Britain.

The museum, which offers visitors a snapshot of country life dating as far back as the 1930s, recently underwent a £3million Heritage Lottery-backed refurbishment and has now reopened its doors to curious tourists.

There are more one million photographs and 25,000 farming-related objects on display at the visitor centre, which launched originally in the 1950s when staff at Reading University realised how fast the countryside around them was changing irrecoverably.  

Dr Oliver Douglas, Assistant Curator at the Museum of English Rural Life, told MailOnline Travel: 'From a man trap to a lark spinners, an artificial bee inseminator to a set of birthing forceps used in lambing sheep, there are thousands of amazing items on display and each has its own extraordinary story to tell.'  

MailOnline Travel has selected 12 intriguing photographs belonging to the museum, which transport viewers back to an era, where there's not a phone, car or electronic gadget in sight...