The Museum of English Rural Life, in the less-than-rural surroundings of Reading, Berkshire, reopened to the public today following a £3m overhaul. Its collection, like the UK countryside itself, is whimsical and curious. Highlights include a "nationally important" stack of wagons and carts; livestock portraits; rare agricultural machinery and implements; a pair of Wellington boots belonging to Glastonbury Festival founder, Michael Eavis; and an artificial bee inseminator. We've no idea, either. 

To celebrate the museum's makeover, here are some of photographs from its archive that depict a England largely lost to time...