Ollie Douglas
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olliedouglas.bsky.social
Ollie Douglas
@olliedouglas.bsky.social
1.5K followers 2.1K following 620 posts
Farm boy at @themerl.bsky.social (at Uni of Reading). Looks after old rural stuff in a big shed. On committee of British Agricultural History Society. Active in AIMA, RMN, and Folklore Society. Views own. “Iconic”.
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olliedouglas.bsky.social
Catherine - one of our brilliant volunteers @themerl.bsky.social - holding a small sample of the variety of grass that she researched for her PhD. She was quite emotional.
A woman wearing purple gloves holding a small glass vial containing a sample of grass. In front of her is a box of similar vials.
November 24, 2025 at 6:20 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Very low priority request for government. We regulate food labels and phone chargers. Please make sure cupcake and muffin trays align in a standard and stackable way.
Detail showing a corner of four cup cake or muffin tins. The tins are stacked but the cup shapes only align on two identical trays from the four, so they do not stack neatly or minimally.
November 23, 2025 at 12:18 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
I write a poem at work the week he died. Here it is:
The Pyecomb Crook A cardinal sinner died this week And I was minded of the hillside fold Of his gilt vestments And the whiff of incense As he confirmed My ill-fated Catholicism. I was minded of the day he blessed My father’s flock with His Father’s words, Twisted in the wind, Tups trapped and turned By red cassock against mud. I was minded of the guilty pride Of him in Conclave, Eating in communion An undeserved taste of history Picking a new pope With a puff of white smoke. He didn’t need gunmetal Wrought by a smith Forced onto a greenwood shaft Into a Pyecomb Crook, Favoured tool of Bishops, To perform these empty gestures. His fall from grace came later, After my own failed faith My unfulfilled shepherding Memory, story, history, symbol, All tainted by the stains Of his redundancy. Like a leg cleek in a museum store, Faded from memory Marked by association A cardinal sinner died this week.
November 20, 2025 at 9:29 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
I was confirmed by this dubious man so I’m not sure the act holds water, holy or otherwise!
The later disgraced (and now the late) Cardinal Keith O’Brien blessing some tups/rams.
November 20, 2025 at 9:23 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
The robot vacuum cleaner decided to fashion itself some fancy dress.
November 6, 2025 at 7:41 AM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
In Coimbra for #RuralHistory2025 and the place I’m staying is stuffed full of rural material culture. Seems about right. It’s a bit like having a sleepover @themerl.bsky.social, but warmer.
An ox yoke leaning against a skirting board in a guest house corridor.
September 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
We are just down valley from the edge of a massive 64,000-acre wildfire. It burned over the pass yesterday and crept into Cantabria. We think it has stopped, for now. Thankful for emergency alerts, brave first responders, and amazing neighbours.
A hand holding a charred black leaf. A tile-roofed house in woodland with a forbidding orange glow to the sky beyond. Mountains with trees-covered hills in the foreground and a massive plume of smoke on the horizon.
August 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
I’m at a village barbecue in the north of Spain. You guessed it. Absolute Unit in attendance.
A bull and some people gather at the start of a party in a field, with people cooking at large barbecues in the background.
August 14, 2025 at 7:31 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
I took a slow stroll through Oxford this morning, sauntering past the English longhorns on Christ Church Meadow. Absolute Units!
A group of English Longhorn cattle with large horns graze in a green meadow with multiple trees in the background. Looking at the rear end of a group of English Longhorn cattle grazing in a green meadow with a large tree to one side, and trees in the background.
August 13, 2025 at 10:28 AM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
I’m on holiday in Spain but the Units abound!
Tudanca cattle (black with white horns) grazing between the rocks above high mountain pasture in Spain. Large flock of sheep grazing on steep rocky slopes of high mountain pasture in Spain. Cliff faces loom behind.
August 7, 2025 at 11:21 AM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Had a quick look because I sometimes run past there and wanted to know where, exactly, it is. In the aerial shot they have what looks like a massive slip-and-slide mat on the hill.
July 25, 2025 at 7:20 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
First ‘Absolute Units’ makes the @radiotimes.bsky.social and then it appears in the Museums Journal, where I look like a minor regional radio disc jockey circa 1983. What a flashback ride this @themerl.bsky.social podcast is taking us on!
Detail of a magazine case study about the Absolute Units podcast, featuring image of MERL Curator Ollie Douglas with a big mic, a laptop, and beadwork wristbands.
July 7, 2025 at 8:30 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Just proving I’m still maintaining Gen Z terminology @themerl.bsky.social, for good or for ill.
Partially removed vinyl spelling out the words ‘leng’ and ‘sus’. Leng is a slang term for things that are good and sus is a slang term for things that are bad.
June 30, 2025 at 10:41 AM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Decanting a gallery in a heatwave?
Vinyl text partly removed, revealing the phrase ‘you div’. Div is British slang for a stupid person.
June 30, 2025 at 10:18 AM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Conservation scything expert Jim shares incredible insight into the history and importance of theses skills, and his colleague Guy gave me a demonstration. We need to find ways to capture and safeguard these fantastic living skills.
Jim poses with his scythe, surrounded by tall reeds and sedges. Guy in full swing with his scythe, surrounded by lush vegetation (some freshly mown)!
June 25, 2025 at 7:21 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Thanks to @judywebb.bsky.social for showing me the amazing work of volunteers helping with nature conservation and ecology @friendlyevalley.bsky.social. So much heritage here that echoes with @themerl.bsky.social.
Lush green rushes, sedges, and bog plants growing either side of a wooden boardwalk, with trees and conservation volunteers in the distance, and blue sky above. Judy Webb standing holding a scythe that she is showing to me. It’s an Austrian scythe because they are smaller and easier to use than traditional English scythes.
June 25, 2025 at 7:21 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
I was also very honoured (and surprised) to be given gifts. I am extremely proud of my amazing wife, Marina de Alarcón, for her part in this dialogue.

Congratulations to you and all your team, @prmlaurita.bsky.social.
Detail of a red, green, and black scarf with a crossed spear symbol, on which sits a traditional red, black and yellow Naga brooch ornament. Both items sit on a wooden surface.
June 15, 2025 at 5:36 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
You can have the added fun of critiquing my folding and stapling skills. And feeding into object-level text for our latest display, The Long Road. 39 down and 36 to go!

[PS. If anyone at work is looking for the extra long stapler, I have liberated it for the day].
A box of papers titled ‘The Long Road’ sits on a wooden desk, alongside a long stapler, and a series of folded and stapled booklets, which are also titled ‘The Long Road’.
June 13, 2025 at 12:32 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Free tours @themerl.bsky.social, during which I surprise a guest speaker by pretending to play piano on a display case. Maybe.
Ollie looks like he is tinkling the ivories on a display case of baskets, as the writer and campaigner Guy Shrubsole looks on.
June 9, 2025 at 4:12 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
I’m struggling to find time to garden. I’m also struggling in a world defined by barriers to movement and exclusionary language about difference. Here’s a poem I wrote about this yesterday.
Poem in black text on grey background, which reads as follows: “Border crisis Old mare's tail rises From dormant root. Unwanted, aboriginal, Rewilding, and nascent, Shocking incumbents. Ground elder creeps From extant borders. Unchecked, immigrant. Non-native, and advancing. Dominating locals. Bindweed reaches From latent tendrils. Unwelcome, indigenous Calculated, and potent, Strangling neighbours. Ollie Douglas, 8 June 2025.”
June 9, 2025 at 8:31 AM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Wish I’d known @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social were in Reading for #Europa2025Reading and to celebrate Martin Bell.

The Society came to @themerl.bsky.social in 1954.

Ploughs were exhibited, a tree was felled with a reconstructed axe, and quern stones were demonstrated.
A black and white photo taken from above, showing a group of people in 1950s suits, coats, dresses and hats, all gathered round a tabletop demonstration by Dr E C Curwen and Mrs Bell-Smith. There is a farm wagon and a marquee in the background. (D/MERL 60 series image 60/377) A black and white photo showing a tabletop quern stone demonstration by Dr E C Curwen (apparently organised by him and by Mrs Bell-Smith). There are men in the background, one of whom smokes a pipe, and a building then known as Whiteknights House (now Old Whiteknights House). (D/MERL 60 series image 60/379) A black and white photo showing a line up of horse drawn ploughs in a marquee, with grass park and trees in the background. (D/MERL 60 series image 60/382)
June 7, 2025 at 4:23 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
I wrote a quick poem to mark my birthday. I was clearly feeling a bit melancholy before work! Much cheerier this evening, but here you go anyway.
Text of poem: “Underlined Beneath the foreword's header, Hidden in a footnote, A farmhouse is mentioned. There under layers of paint Lies a chart of lines, That mark my youthful growth. Each one a vignette of effort, Strained on tiptoe and neck craned, A weighty book marking The depth of my progress. But where now is the chart That marks my bodily retreat? Not hidden but forgetting, Shrinking from hairline to feet. Those records are tallied By these lines on paper, Progressing down the page. Will these lines be forgotten too when the book is closed? Or will they find new emphasis in some form of afterword? Deep strata of stanzas, Of lines not yet written, That may yet be underlined. Ollie Douglas 3 June 2025”
June 3, 2025 at 7:11 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
On brand levels of tillage outside School of Agriculture, Policy, and Development @uniofreading.bsky.social.
Bare brown earth with drilled lines running across it.
June 3, 2025 at 3:56 PM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
It was written for recitation more than reading, but here you go.
Poem text (black on grey) - 1/4 “The Hedge (with apologies and thanks to Oliver Rackham) There is a hedge near here that ticks the box of every tree and shrub on Rackham's list. The hedge itself has added many more that Rackham missed. The hedge a complex mix of plants and beasts and fungal forms, Of weeds and flowers and microbes and of worms. Linnean names in records marked on pages, Which since have served to help define successive ages. Through bookish strengths of hindsight and composure, They chart bleak tales of clearance and enclosure.” Poem text (black on grey) - 2/4 “Of landlords who chose to fence and field this place, Curbing commoners and poachers but letting huntsmen chase. Of hedgers whose wisdom read the contours of the land, Then hooked and snapped at stems to lay this bed by hand. This made a line that bars us now from green space in beyond. A barrier to meadow, coppice, scrub, brook, woodland, field, and pond. It stops dead access in the name of stewardship and care. Keeping landscapes 'safe' from those who might wish to wander there. But this hedge still survives today and maintains many lives, A species-filled ecology that fluctuates and thrives. Yet many other hedges once graced the slopes behind Concentric rounded boundaries of crops to stook and bind, But fields and hedges ate into the profits and the yields Yielding to the monocrops of ever larger fields. Their species rich word listings all suddenly erased With hedge funds slashed and flailed and rooted out and raised.” Poem text (black on grey) - 3/4 “But this one lasting barrier still fixes us in place, Marking other species separate from our petty selfish race. It has grown in natural ways, outwards, upwards, and beneath, With branches intertwining in a natural form of wreath. That marks the final resting place of all of this division And helps rewrite such woeful tales of breakages and fission. For this seam is now a path and home for animals and birds, A comma not a full stop and a counterpoint to words. A barrier that we clamber through to ask the right to roam, In a world that grows for everyone, a multispecies home.” Poem text (black on grey) - 4/4 “Indeed, what might this hedge say if it could share its voice, Would it leave us quietly as we are or lay out for us a choice? Instead of hooks and snaps and splits, That cut and chop our world in bits, That take the vetches, wrens, and mice, And give them each a human price, That use the hawthorn's ragged frame To justify this need to tame, Its refrain would surely be unbounded, Non-binary, more-than-human, and in many ways unfounded, For nature has a great deal more to say than we have found, or might yet find And much more than the seeds of which were grown in Rackham's mind. Ollie Douglas, May 2025”
June 1, 2025 at 9:00 AM
olliedouglas.bsky.social
Familiar-sounding discourse on automation from Tom Williams at the 1956 Power Farming Conference:

“In soil conditions one comes up against so many changing factors. … I believe the human brain in immediate control of the machine will be very hard to displace.”

This could be a 2025 opinion piece.
Image of printed text on page, which reads: “Automation In recent months we have heard a good deal about automation in industry. As automation is strictly the province of the engineer, I presume I shall not be out of order if I speculate on its possible impact on agriculture. We know it is feasible to determine the movements of a tractor by remote radio control. It has been argued from this-not by the manufacturer-that complete automation of crop production is just around the corner. While I agree that everything seems possible to the engineer, provided only that cost does not matter, I think this view is exaggerated. In soil conditions one comes up against so many changing factors. Since it is so essential to ensure that operations are properly executed, I believe the human brain in immediate control of the machine will be very hard to displace. I do think, however, that automation may have an indirect effect on agriculture. If, and when, it is extensively applied in factories, and workers' hours are substantially reduced, a significant volume of part time labour may want to work on the land. These people might seek to help farmers or work on their own allotments or smallholdings.”
May 30, 2025 at 7:40 AM