Reading’s Bayeux Tapestry
7 hours ago
- The Bayeux Tapestry original is on display at the British Museum, fully sold out for 2026 and likely for early 2027, with tickets costing £33.
- Reading Museum offers a free, full-size, full-color embroidered replica of the Bayeux Tapestry, viewable without queues or booking.
- The replica was created by Elizabeth Wardle and 35 members of the Leek Embroidery Society in 1885-1886, after Wardle visited the original in Normandy.
- The Reading replica is displayed in a specially-designed gallery, divided into three sections, with explanatory green panels (sponsored by Norman Insurance) and slightly slanted glass to avoid reflections.
- Unlike the original, the replica's colors are brighter, the fabric unstained, and it includes a potential final scene sewn in 2019 by Joy Messent showing William's coronation.
- The original tapestry depicts the Norman conquest, including Harold's oath, Halley's comet, and the Battle of Hastings, with nearly 100 depicted willies (the Victorian replica modestly covers one figure).
- Each embroiderer's name is sewn under their section in the replica, unlike the anonymous original makers from Canterbury.
- Reading's replica is free and open Tuesday-Saturday, while the British Museum's original is a once-in-a-lifetime experience but expensive and hard to access.