The Bayeux Tapestry - new threads on old linen

Most of us are aware of the brilliant depictions from the 223ft embroidery known since 1729 as ‘The Bayeux Tapestry’. It is now generally accepted that it was produced in England, probably at workshops connected to St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, and dates from the first decades after 1066. In this talk we look at some other fascinating aspects. How was it manufactured? Where are the embroidery errors? What restorations were made and how have these distorted our understanding of the story it portrays? We also consider where the embroidery may have been before its first recorded appearance in Bayeux in 1476 and how it was saved by, of all people, the German Commandant of Paris in 1944.

John Morewood is President of the St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society. He has run historical tours on Norman rule in both England and Normandy.

This lecture will be available in person at Marlborough Road Methodist Church and online via Zoom. Attendance is free to members; £5 for non-members. Please click on the button above right, and register your option. You will then receive confirmation of your registration by email return. Registration closes at 3.30pm on Tuesday 21 May.

All those registered will be emailed the Zoom joining instructions by 4pm on the day of the lecture. If you have not received this by 5pm, please contact us using the email address below. NB. If you are registering two or more members to attend via Zoom, and want each of them to receive the link in their own email inbox, these details need to be entered at registration.

If you have any questions, please email Gill Girdziusz via [email protected]

Image above: At the start of the tapestry King Edward the Confessor sends his brother-in-law Harold to Normandy (Wikicommons)

Host or Publisher SAHAAS Events Team