The Bayeux tapestry is being loaned to United Kingdom

I have a lot of tea towels which have never been used but not one from there!

I must admit my DS enjoyed the bit with the arrow in Harold's eye best but he was about 13 at the time.

It depends if you like history or not, I suppose.

M0nica

A replica (without the naughty bits) can be seen at Reading Museum. It was embroidered by 35 skilled Victorian women embroiderers in 1885 and depicts the events leading up and includes to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The women who embroidered it were members of the the Leek Embroidery Society led by a woman called Elizabeth Wardle, a skilled embroiderer and wife of Staffordshire silk-dyer Thomas Wardle.

Thomas Wardle was part of the Arts and Crafts movement led by William Morris and he dyed many of the silks and other materials needed by William Morris for his works.

I was going to ask where that was based.I saw a programme about it a while back.

No naughty bits in Victorian times, especially in Leek! 😁

LizzieDrip

keepingquiet

Bet it's going to be in London...?

Yes, I expect it will be

Yes, London, The British Museum.
Think I will go and see it.😃

JamesandJon33

I saw the original several years ago. I didn’t know about the naughty bits then . I’ll go back.

Thank you, I'm planning to see it while it's here & will make sure to know about the naughty bits to look out for!

Thanks. I looked up the British Museum's website. Apparently it was George Osborne who, along with others, was instrumental in securing the loan of the tapestry. He's the museum's Chairman.

Let’s hope Just Stop Oil stay away😱

Sago

Let’s hope Just Stop Oil stay away😱

Surely it will be behind toughened glass? I hope.

If they ruined that the Entente Cordiale would be tested. Could we send them to the Bastille?

Tell the French we want it back for good. Then we can think of giving the Elgin Marble back to where the belong.

What really is thus act of entente cordiale by Vive la France really about?

Just had a thought. Perhaps thet could add an extra panelon the end of the tapesty.

Which depicted masses of illegal immigrants in dinghies landing from English Channel near Dover.

And the Frencn trousering hundreds of millions of English tax payers pounds for doing very little.

😂

Fine if you live in London or the south or is it touring UK?

Of course! Only London exists!

Find it weirdly funny that the tapestry depicts people in boats! And the problem with the UK & France is people in boats!
Maybe do a ‘new tapestry’
Nothing has changed

I’m not sure why people would think it shouldn’t be in London. It’s actually the capital city. I’m sure if it were somewhere in the sticks residents would moan about the security costs and the crowds etc. The British Museum is a great location and used to displaying precious artefacts.

The Bayeux tapestry is so large, so fragile and so valuable. It is clear that touring it round the country is totally out of the question.

The French will have been very specific about all the security systems required and also the managed environment that is necessary when so many people will be walking past the tapestry breathing our microbes and damp air.

It is clear that only a mueum like the British Mueseum will have the facilties to protect and care for such a precious and delicate artifact.

As for those out of London complaining. It is a lot easier for them to come to London to see the Bayeux tapestry than travel to Bayeux to see it.

It's going to be in the British Museum. Needs to be displayed somewhere that has enough space as its so long. The place where it currently lives is going to be renovated - so its all timed so that can be done whilst we get to look after it for a bit! I last saw it in situ well over 40 years ago, so am looking forward to seeing it (naughty bits and all) again. I agree with the last person - easier to see it in London that go to Bayeux. Mind you - any excuse to go to france......................

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202507/medium-bvfx68-20250710-155522.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202507/medium-52bh7y-20250710-155106.jpg

I've just found this pamphlet from April in my drawer here in France.
Look at the price, 12 euros, £10! Now let's guess what entry will cost to see it in the UK. (Unless of course it will be free? Anyone know?)

That's what I like about France. You can go out for the day and it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg to buy tickets to visit places of interest.

Many London museums are free for visitors and that includes foreign visitors, unlike many other countries we’ve visited. Special exhibitions sometimes attract a fee but I suppose that’s to be expected given the enormous costs involved in maintaining these places. The British museum is free for the standing exhibitions, special collections are usually around £18-£20 but free to members. The Louvre and Orsay museums both charge for entrance at all times.

Out of interest does the Bayeux tapestry tour France?

The replica in Denmark taught me much..I hadn't realised that the Normans were the Northmen in other words the Vikings. Hence the interest in anything Viking in Denmark.

I don't think it ever leaves Bayeux. I'm sure it was hanging in Bayeux Cathedral several decades ago before they built the visitor centre.

Yes, we are very fortunate that our museums are free, and I don't object to paying for special exhibitions in a capiral city.
I think I meant more the scattered provincial attractions like say Mont St. Michel which is free, unlike St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall, where I think we pay £16.

By the way, if you're in Bayeux, it's worth visiting the WW2 cemetery where soldiers from the UK are buried.
Centuries apart from the Norman invasion times, but it makes you realise how futile wars are.

I love it. You have to look close to see the humour in it. Unfortunately the cartoon-like figures give the idea that people in those days were incapable of more realistic depictions. But that is quite untrue. The figures are intentionally cartoon-like.

Grammaretto

How exciting! I saw an exact replica at Børglum Kloster, Jutland, North Denmark last year. No crowds and time to really take it all in.
It is such an amazing thing.

www.bayeuxtapetet.dk

Oh how lovely, I am thrilled just to read about it in Danish, I would love to see that, but doubt I will ever be visiting Denmark again. I was born and bred there and spent my first 19 years then before I came to England. Really Nostalgic for me, thank you.

Also, (starting to sound like a guide book now), you can see William the Conq's thigh bone in Abbey Saint-Étienne in Caen.
The huge Romanesque church was founded in 1063 by William and he was buried there, but during theFrench Wars of Religion, his tomb was opened and the bones were scattered and lost, apart from the thigh bone!