A council is demanding that its residents be offered priority booking to view the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum.
Canterbury City Council in Kent said: ‘Such an offer is available to the people of Hastings and Rother due to the Bayeux Tapestry’s links to these areas, but Canterbury district has not been included, despite it being widely considered that it was made here.’
Alan Baldock argued that without Hastings, there would be no tapestry to celebrate, and that the same was true of Canterbury, adding that workers, particularly women, were often forgotten, including Canterbury’s seamstresses.
Mr Baldock said the tapestry was part of the area’s rich storytelling heritage and a huge source of pride for people across the region.
The Bayeux Tapestry is an 11th-century embroidery, made from dyed wool stitched onto linen. It is about 68m long.
The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition is opening at the British Museum in London on Thursday.
The Bayeux Tapestry was slightly damaged during its journey from France to the British Museum.
Experts found two broken threads and slight tears in two areas of the linen.
How the Bayeux Tapestry is laid out at The British Museum for its grand return to these shores
The landmark exhibition, which opens to the public next week, marks a major moment in Anglo-French relations and follows years of negotiations over bringing the extraordinarily fragile artwork across the Channel
The tapestry was transported with extreme care: folded accordion-style, kept in a climate-controlled case, placed in a shock-absorbing cradle, and moved by a specially protected truck.
The journey took 11 hours and 350 miles, with police escorts, and experts examined the tapestry centimetre by centimetre after it arrived.
Although the exact cause of the tears has not been confirmed, the damage appears to have happened during or around the transportation process.
French officials and the British Museum said the tapestry is virtually unchanged overall, with no major damage.
During the 11th century, Canterbury was home to St Augustine’s Abbey and Christ Church Priory, renowned across Europe as centres for elite needlework (Opus Anglicanum).
Textual spellings in the Latin inscriptions use Anglo-Saxon English mannerisms, confirming English craftsmanship.
Embroidery of this scale required high-level organisation, as high-status Anglo-Saxon women and nuns in religious communities handled the stitching.
Following the Conquest, noblewomen were often tasked with producing luxury textiles for Norman patrons.
The announcement of its state loan to the British Museum created unprecedented public demand, drawing comparisons to landmark exhibitions like the 1972 Tutankhamun showcase.
It is the first time in nearly 1,000 years that the tapestry has come back to England
The likes of Andy Burnham, French president Emmanuel Macron and Charles saw it this week
The medieval artwork was spirited into the British Museum in the dead of night, after a high-tech, tight-security operation
Tickets for primary exhibition blocks sold out within hours of release. Peak tickets priced over £30 sold rapidly.
The artwork tells the story of the events leading to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, including Harold Godwinson’s journey to Normandy, William’s invasion and the Battle of Hastings.
It contains 627 people, 737 animals, 37 ships and 33 buildings, and uses nine linen panels and five types of stitch.
It is historically important because it is the only surviving major pictorial account of these events, alongside mostly written historical sources.
Its 2026-27 exhibition at the British Museum is historically significant because this is the first time in almost 1,000 years that the Tapestry has returned to England. It will be displayed from September 10 2026, to July 11 2027.
Its usual home is the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux in Normandy. It travelled to Britain because the museum closed for refurbishment.
