IT’S been described as history’s first graphic novel and it could be on its way to Hampshire.
Councillor Roy Perry, leader of Hampshire County Council, has offered to host the Bayeux Tapestry at the Great Hall of Winchester Castle, after the French President Emmanuel Macron announced that it would be loaned to the UK
The 230ft-long embroidery depicts events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066.
Although referred to as a tapestry, it is an embroidery stitched in nine different panels and it is believed to have been sewn by nuns in Canterbury.
Councillor Perry said: “The Great Hall of Winchester Castle is the second largest medieval hall in England and would be a very appropriate venue to display the Bayeux Tapestry, should it come to England.
“Winchester was the Anglo-Saxon capital of England at the time of the Norman Conquest.
“Already, ferries cross the Channel daily between Normandy and Hampshire, so it would be easy for French tourists to visit.”
The arrival of the Normans saw the capital switched from Winchester to London.
Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum in London, made the pitch for his institution to host the tapestry: “Here it would be seen by the widest UK and international audience in the context of a museum of world cultures.”
The location for the display
is due to be decided later this
year.
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