To ensure it travelled safely – and without damage – the folding stand, which the tapestry has been kept on since it was taken down from display in Bayeux last year, was put inside a crate, with temperature and humidity regulation. That crate was then placed into an outer cage, in which metal springs acted as shock absorbers to protect it from bumps in the road.
The work travelled across the Channel on the Eurotunnel before making its way to central London in the dead of night.
Cullinan told me: “If anybody had said on the other side, especially on the French side as the lenders, ‘I think this is too risky to do’, it wouldn’t be arriving now. That’s the reality. A museum would never do something that imperilled the objects in its care.”
No damage is “the goal”, he added. “That’s what all the care has gone into trying to achieve and we feel very confident about that. And the thing to say too is much more fragile things travel all the time. We lend more fragile things.”
Two practice journeys with a textile copy were previously made, to test the route and the crate. The point was to measure the vibrations and reduce any major impact or shock.
Peter Ricketts, the UK special envoy for the loan of the tapestry, said: “everything possible” had been done to avoid damage.
“No one would want to bring the tapestry to the UK if they thought there was any damage or danger to this extraordinary object. I’m not worried, I’m relieved. It looks like all those meticulous arrangements for the transport are working very well.”
He described the loan as “two old nations coming together to look at their shared history and that is very special”.
The Bayeux Tapestry is nt actually a tapestry at all: it is linen with embroidered pictures of the tussle between William, Duke of Normandy then Conqueror of England, and Harold II, King of England, stitched on in coloured woollen yarn.
An embroidery of immense significance – 58 scenes, 626 characters (but only six women), 202 horses – ships, swords and arrows (including one hitting the soldier believed to be Harold II – although there are questions about whether this was added later).
Horton-Insch said it was a “miracle” that the artwork had survived for nearly 1,000 years. “Moths, mice, damp, mould, fire any number of things” could have wrecked it.
“It is just an extraordinary survival.”
“It tells the story of one of the most consequential moments in English history, British history, in the most incredibly vivid way that just can’t be captured in written sources.”
The Bayeux Tapestry is an epic depiction of the end of Anglo-Saxon England.
The Norman Conquest changed everything, reshaping the country entirely. English lands were handed over the Norman nobles. The Normans built hundreds of castles which secured their control and projected royal power.
English earls were replaced with Normans, as were senior members of the Church.
And thousands of French words that we still use today entered the English language – everything from law, parliament and justice to mutton, beef and pork.
The tapestry gives an account of the medieval period in Normandy and England like no other. It provides information about civil and military architecture, armour and seafaring in the Viking tradition, as well as precious details of everyday life.
Before 1066, the nation’s cultural and political ties were to Scandinavia and the North Sea. After the Norman conquest, it became part of a Norman realm stretching across the English Channel. It is sometimes said to be the start of England’s involvement in continental European politics.
The excitement about it going on display saw the British Museum sell a record 100,000 tickets on the first day of sales. The work will be displayed flat – a requirement of the loan. A mezzanine will allow visitors to see the work in its entirety as they walk into the gallery – for the first time in history.
But before that come weeks of painstaking examination of the work.
