The Bayeux Tapestry, one of France’s most famous mediaeval artefacts, is being painstakingly recreated by a woman from Cambridgeshire.
The real thing measures nearly 70m long by 50cm tall and famously depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, culminating in the Battle of Hastings. It is thought to date from the 11th century, within a few years of the battle.
It has been copied several times over the centuries and the latest version is being hand-sewn by Swedish-born Mia Hansson, who now lives in Wisbech.
The skilled seamstress came up with the project in December 2015 as a remedy for boredom, and started stitching the following July.
“I made some basic calculations,” she said. “If I did five hours every day, I would have finished it in 10 years. I thought: ‘Brilliant, 10 years. I never have to think of what to do tomorrow’”.
Ms Hansson, 50, has added a year to her deadline after her husband began working on their house.
Despite taking on such a well known artefact, she admits she is not a huge fan of history and did very little research, beyond reading Jan Messent's book, The Bayeux Tapestry Embroiderers' Story and watching online tutorials.
To get started, she found cloth in a West London shop and uses just seven shades of wool. As for her needle, it’s become a bit of a legend in its own right.
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“I call it ‘the one and only’,” Ms Hansson said. “It has stitched, on its own, 46 metres of embroidery, plus a lot of side projects.
“It's now bent from the heat of my fingers. It is quite special.
Ms Hanson's famous needleMia Hansson
“I actually dropped it the other day and I thought: ‘I cannot risk it’. So I took it to a little craft shop and was allowed to rummage in the owner’s personal stash. We found four fairly similar needles, and obviously I got my wallet out. She said: ‘No, absolutely not. I’m just happy to contribute to your wonderful project.’”
Ms Hansson’s passion for embroidery, nurtured as a child by her grandmother, as well as her self-proclaimed stubbornness, has helped drive this ambitious project forward.
“It’s become one of those things I'm just going to have to finish, because if I stop now, I will be known as the woman who failed – and I don't fail,” she said.
Her tapestry has not only captured the attention of audiences worldwide, it has also led to several side projects.
They include an ongoing series of books focusing on various aspects of the tapestry, from the boats to the horses, while the final, eighth volume will examine all the mistakes and oddities she has found.
Ms Hansson first set eyes on the original Bayeux Tapestry, now exhibited at the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux in Bayeux, Normandy, some 10 years before she started her own.
The original Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Norman invasion of England in the 11th CenturyIrina Wilhauk / Shutterstock
“I was absolutely blown away. Now I want to go back but I don't think I’ll be blown away in the same sense, because I’ve seen mine laid out so many times.
“I will be looking at it differently; all the things I have discovered I want to see for real again. If I do go, they're probably going to have to kick me out because I just won't leave.”
There remain questions over what will happen to Ms Hansson’s tapestry when her massive project comes to an end.
Although she has already turned down a £100,000 offer for her work, she insists she will not promise it to anyone until it is finished “because then I won't want to do it. It would become a job and it has to be my hobby”.
As for what she will do with her spare time afterwards, there may be another project linked to the Bayeux Tapestry on the horizon.
“People have asked me: ‘Are you going to do the missing bit?’ I've always said no, first of all, because the missing end doesn't exist, and I try to replicate things that I can see.
“But then the mayor of Bayeux asked for international artists to design it. They already have someone to make it but they want artists to design it. Needless to say, I have contacted them and I haven't heard back. So I'm not going to bank on it, but then I thought: ‘Maybe I’ll just design it anyway?’”
Bayeux Tapestry's survival
Historians agree that William the Conqueror’s half-brother Odo, the bishop of Bayeux, commissioned the embroidery to decorate his cathedral for its consecration in 1077, 11 years after William defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.
During the French Revolution, the tapestry escaped destruction when the captain of the National Guard intervened to prevent it from being cut into pieces to cover army wagons.
During France’s occupation, the work became a focus of interest for the Ahnenerbe, a pseudo-scientific branch of the SS made up of scholars charged with promoting Hitler’s invented racial doctrines.
These Nazi academics found ‘evidence’ of early Germanic culture in the tapestry, and ordered it be moved for further study, first to an abbey 11km from Bayeux, and then to a chateau 175km away.
In 2018, President Macron announced that France may lend the cultural treasure to Britain for the first time in its 950-year history. Curators decided, however, that plans for the embroidery’s cross-channel trip have to be put on hold while essential restoration is carried out.
If you cannot make it to Bayeux, visitors to Reading Museum in the UK can inspect a beautiful Victorian replica, stitched in 1885 by members of the Leek Embroidery Society in Staffordshire.
It is also available in digitised format online courtesy of the Bayeux Museum. Visit bayeuxmuseum.com
