The Bayeux Tapestry, an emblematic 11th-century embroidery depicting the 1066 Battle of Hastings, will be displayed in Britain for the first time this September. Normally housed in Normandy, France, the 230-foot-long, 20-inch-tall historic work chronicles the defeat of King Harold by William the Conqueror. Believed to have been created in Kent during the 1070s, the tapestry is expected to go on loan from the French government to the British Museum. Tickets for the exhibition, which go on sale July 1, are priced at £33 for adults.

While the original makes its rare journey to England, visitors can also view a full-scale 19th-century replica at Reading Museum in Berkshire, free of charge. This Victorian copy carries its own unique history, including elements of cultural tension surrounding the depiction of nudity in the original embroidery.

The original tapestry, technically an embroidery made from wool on linen, was likely commissioned by Bishop Odo, William the Conqueror’s half-brother, for Bayeux Cathedral. Scholarly consensus suggests that Anglo-Saxon nuns from St Augustine’s Priory in Canterbury crafted the piece, leveraging their renowned needlework skills of the era. The tapestry features 58 detailed scenes with over 600 human figures, 60 ships and buildings, nearly 200 horses, and notably includes Halley’s Comet’s appearance the year of the battle.

The Victorian reproduction effort was led by Elizabeth Wardle, a pioneering fabric artist from Leek, Staffordshire, and founder of the Leek Embroidery Society. Inspired after viewing the original in Bayeux in 1885, Wardle assembled 35 embroiderers from across Britain to duplicate every stitch of the historic tapestry. Using hand-colored photographs provided by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the team traced and transferred the designs onto cloth. Wardle’s husband, Thomas, supplied the yarn dyes, which emulated the original’s autumnal tones. The replication was completed within a year, by spring 1886.

Reading Museum’s Community Engagement Curator Brendan Carr notes that the Victorian replica is a meticulously faithful rendition and an important example of the Arts and Crafts movement. Unlike the anonymous creators of the original, the Victorian embroiderers included their signatures on a blue border beneath each section—a rare personal touch not present in the original.

One significant distinction between the two works is the Victorian replica’s removal or covering of the original’s genital depictions. Historical analyses identify nearly 100 instances of male genitalia on the Bayeux Tapestry, present on human figures and horses alike. However, the replica censors these images in line with Victorian modesty standards; horses portrayed as stallions in the original appear as geldings, and male nudity is largely obscured by painted undergarments.

Carr explains that this censorship was not primarily the work of the embroiderers themselves but stemmed from alterations to the hand-colored reference plates used during the reproduction. There is evidence that some Victorian women involved were uncomfortable with these imposed changes. For instance, Margaret Ritchie, who signed her embroidered section, refused to stitch painted pants over a caricatured male figure’s genitalia, leaving it as a simple outline instead. This subtle act suggests that the women might have quietly resisted Victorian prudishness, signaling a nuanced attitude toward nudity that contrasted with the expectations of the predominantly male museum curators of the time.