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The Bayeux Tapestry was finished this year. It was a visual record of the Battle of Hastings and the events leading up to it and what happened afterwards. It was probably William’s half-brother, Bishop Odo, who decided to have it done although it is believed it was made in Canterbury.
It was, and still is because you can see it in a museum in Bayeux (no surprise there) in France, nearly 70 metres long and about half a metre wide. It has some 50 different scenes which were embroidered on to a blank linen cloth.
However, it is perhaps not the best or most accurate historical record as it shows everything from a Norman point of view. Even the part which shows King Harold with an arrow in his eye may not be true but people still tell that story, as we did earlier.
But that is how history is sometimes retold. People like to make themselves look better and no I will not say that the arrow didn’t go into Harold’s eye because a short-eared owl flew in and took the arrow away in its beak.
It is, though, amazing to think that this piece of cloth was handled by people who lived over 950 years ago.
The Bayeux Tapestry may return to England in 2022. An agreement between the UK and France will see it displayed at various locations in the UK.
I say return because, as we said earlier, people believe it may have been stitched in Canterbury, probably by a team of nuns. They also think, because the stitching is
all the same, that it was just one team of people who made it all.
It wasn't loaned to the UK in 2022 but, who knows, one day it might be
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