For the first time since it was made nearly 1,000 years ago, the Bayeux Tapestry has returned to England, on loan to the British Museum and YES, we can offer exclusive visits! Tickets from 10 September – 31 December 2026 have sold out. Tickets from 1 January – 31 March 2027 will be available on 21 October 2026.

Following a historic agreement with France, the 70-metre-long tapestry, depicting events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, is being loaned to the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027. Most surviving sources of the period are written. As the only remaining pictorial account of these events, the Tapestry’s visual narrative helps bring the past to life.  However, most scholars today think the Tapestry was made in England, probably in or around Canterbury, because of the influence on its design of illuminated manuscripts made in or owned by monastic libraries in Canterbury.  

Multiple online and in museum events are scheduled for this blockbuster event.

This monumental embroidery tells the dramatic story of a moment that changed England forever. No year in the country’s history is more famous than 1066. It was the last time England was successfully invaded, and it is the year from which the modern monarchy dates itself. And there is no other object that is as instantly recognizable, as studied in schools and as copied by artists as the Bayeux Tapestry. 

One of the wonders of the medieval world, the Tapestry offers a vision of life in 11th-century England both before and after the Conquest, from castles, warfare and ships to clothing, food and furniture. Likely commissioned by a Norman patron and made by English embroiderers, using manuscript drawings from Canterbury, the Tapestry is both a precious historical record and a remarkable work of art. The Bayeux Tapestry is an extraordinary work of art that tells the dramatic story of the events leading up to, and including, the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Over 950 years after the Tapestry was made, a new chapter in its history began, as it returned to Britain in a historic loan to the British Museum.   

In tandem are multiple events scheduled during the exhibition including this Zoom presentation. The women of the Bayeux Tapestry Join historian and presenter Kate Lister, Project Curator Millie Horton-Insch and Professor of Medieval Studies Bob Mills for an engaging discussion on the women of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Only three women feature in the central frieze of the Bayeux Tapestry, and three more anonymous women feature in the decorative borders. Only one – the enigmatic Ælfgyva – is named in the inscription. Why is this? Though few in number, the appearances of these women mark significant moments in the story and raise intriguing questions about identity, power and status in 11th-century England.

Dates: September 10, 2026  to July 11, 2027

Highly Recommend!