Reading museum say interest is growing in replica Bayeux tapestry
Britain's full-size replica is 140 years old this year
Reading's tourism organisation has held a special event to raise the profile of the town's replica of the Bayeux tapestry.
Journalists and travel writers have been given a special briefing and guided tour of Reading's full-size replica ahead of the original going on show in London later this year.
The only full-scale replica of the Norman Bayeux Tapestry, Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry, is celebrating 140 years since its creation in summer 1886.
The tapestry, which like the original isn’t really a tapestry at all but an embroidery, found its permanent home in Reading Museum in 1895 when the Mayor of Reading 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 ladies mostly from Leek (Staffordshire) based on tracings from full-size hand-coloured photographs in the Victoria & Albert Museum. It is the only full-scale exact replica of the original tapestry and at 70 metres long fills two specially designed galleries in Reading Museum.
This year, as we approach 2027’s 1000- year anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror as well as this autumn’s British Museum exhibition of the original tapestry, Reading Museum will be marking the 140th anniversary of the Victorian tapestry with increased public tours, as well as tours of Reading’s medieval Abbey Quarter.
Matthew Williams, Reading Museum Manager, said: “The arrival of the Norman tapestry this autumn and the Year of the Normans celebrations in 2027, provides a unique opportunity to discover two Bayeux Tapestries as well as Reading’s Norman history in Reading Abbey Quarter, all linked by one train line – the Elizabeth Line.”
Tours
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 Thursday at 2:30pm and Saturday at 2pm.
Abbey Quarter Tours take place every Saturday from April. The tours explore the highlights of the medieval Abbey Quarter, including the Hospitium where medieval pilgrims stayed and the impressive Reading Abbey Ruins, created by William the Conqueror’s son, King Henry I, as his own mausoleum. It also visits the medieval Abbey Gateway, which subsequently became the school where Jane Austen studied and lived as a girl. The Abbey Ruins are also open free of charge every day for the public to visit.
Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry tours - https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/bayeux-tapestry-tours
Abbey Quarter visits - https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/your-visit/reading-abbey-quarter