Historian hopes Bayeux Tapestry will boost interest

A Nottingham historian who was among the first people to view the Bayeux Tapestry after it arrived in the UK hopes it will spark greater interest in a crucial period of history.

The medieval artwork depicting the Norman Conquest of England officially goes on display at the British Museum later this week.

Dr Natasha Hodgson, an associate professor in history at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), who has spent much of her career studying the work, said it remains "incredibly well preserved" despite being almost 1,000 years old.

She said it is likely British women were a key part in the tapestry's construction, and sees the visit to this side of the Channel as a kind of homecoming.

"I'm so excited to see the tapestry here," she said.

"The British Museum have done a fantastic job of displaying it, and I managed to have a bit of alone time with the tapestry itself, which is an incredibly rare thing.

"It just jumped out [at] you - the vividness of the colours, the details of the stitching, the ways that these women who made it have carefully and lovingly put every single seam together - it's fantastic."

While some female characters are depicted among the borders, three women feature in the main part of the tapestry.

The figure of Aelfgyva has remained a mystery for nearly a millennium, while a woman mourning the English king Edward the Confessor is believed to be his wife Edith.

Another unnamed woman who is shown fleeing a burning building with a child has also proven enigmatic.

Hodgson - who is also a director of the Centre for History Heritage and Memory Studies at NTU - said that while the tapestry threads the needle through the story of the Norman Conquest, it remains open to many interpretations.

"It is a story of succession, but it's very ambiguous," she said.

"The fact that Harold [Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England] is treated quite sympathetically throughout the tapestry again suggests possible English influence, and I think that there is this sense that this is a reconciliation tapestry, as well as one of conquest."

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