If you’ve been watching the news recently you will have noticed that The Bayeux Tapestry is coming to Britain in 2020.  There has been great excitement in our house since we heard, as we are right in the middle of studying the Norman Conquest of 1066.

The Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror and 1066 are familiar to us but it hasn’t been until we have taken time to appreciate the Bayeux Tapestry that the details and importance of the events at the time have taken route and come to life.  Such a beautiful and enormous work of embroidery, with intricate details and Latin text, has brought this moment of history alive. The children were begging to go to France! After quickly working out that was not possible, I came across the Reading Museum only 45 minutes from us. They have an exquisite 70 metre replica of the Bayeux Tapestry woven in 1885 by 35 skilled Victorian embroiderers. So we went last week and had a fabulous time.  The little one was fixated on counting all the horses!

Before our trip we read a couple of highly recommended books, which talked us through scene by scene:
                              

So we didn’t have to wait until 2020 or have to get a ferry to Bayeux (although that is still tempting one day!). A little known treasure in Reading worth visiting!