THE ONLY full-scale replica of the Norman Bayeux Tapestry, Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry, celebrates 140 years since its creation this week.
Completed in June 1886, the tapestry found its permanent home in Reading Museum in 1895 when a former Mayor of Reading, Arthur Hill, bought it for the town from its creators, the Leek Embroidery Society at the end of its world tour.
The tapestry was stitched by 35 Victorian women, mostly from Leek in Staffordshire, based on tracings from full-size hand-coloured photographs in the Victoria & Albert Museum.
It is the only full-scale, almost exact replica of the original tapestry and at 70 metres long fills a specially designed gallery in Reading Museum.
Elizabeth Wardle had the original idea to make the replica Bayeux Tapestry; she was a skilled embroiderer and a member of the Leek Embroidery Society in Staffordshire, and her husband, Thomas Wardle was a leading silk industrialist.
Elizabeth Wardle researched the Bayeux Tapestry by visiting Bayeux in 1885. The aim of the project was to make a full-sized and accurate replica of the Bayeux Tapestry, ‘so that England should have a copy of its own’ (Elizabeth Wardle).
It took just over a year to complete, and ach embroiderer stitched her name beneath her completed panel.
Elizabeth Wardle added the final inscription at the end of the tapestry in June 1886.
Reading is considered a logical final location for the tapestry; the town boasts a medieval Abbey Quarter, with the impressive Reading Abbey Ruins, at its centre.
The Abbey was founded in 1121 by William the Conqueror’s son, King Henry I, to be his own mausoleum.
Matthew Williams, Reading Museum Manager, said: “Reading’s own medieval history provided the perfect reason for the town to first acquire and exhibit Britain’s version of the Bayeux Tapestry back in the late 19th century.
“Now, with the tapestry’s own 140th anniversary coinciding with the imminent opening of the British Museum Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, we are delighted to see the renewed interest in this remarkable work of art.”
Reading Museum provides free access to Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry and all the Museum galleries from Tuesday to Saturday.
Special guided tours of the tapestry by Museum staff take place every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons at a cost of £10.
