Image: Bayeux Tapestry © Bayeux Museum
MP urges British Museum chair to reserve exhibition tickets for local residents and assist with travel costs for historic display next year
Following news that the Bayeux Tapestry will come to the British Museum next year, the MP for Hastings and Rye has called for its exhibition to extend to the area.
The tapestry is set to be displayed at the British Museum from September 2026, as part of a loan swap between France and the UK.
900 years later: Bayeux Tapestry to go on UK display in loan swap
The tapestry depicts the events leading up to and including the Battle of Hastings in 1066, where William of Normandy defeated Harold II of England. It is a visual record of the Norman conquest of England.
The loan will mark the first time that the medieval tapestry, which chronicles the Norman Conquest of 1066, will be displayed in the UK in nearly 1,000 years.
Speaking in Parliament, MP Helena Dollimore mentioned the campaign “to make sure that my area is truly part of this national moment and feels the benefits of it”.
Dollimore called the tapestry’s loan a “triumph for Britain”, and “quite literally wove Hastings and 1066 Country into our national history”.
The MP went on” “…but while we are often at the centre of historical events, we have not always felt the benefits, and our area is in the bottom 10 places in the whole country for social mobility.
“This will be the exhibition of a generation, and our area must be a part of it. Children in my constituency must not be priced out by the cost of a ticket or train fare. What better way to ensure that that does not happen than to have the tapestry visit ‘1066 Country’.”
The practicalities of displaying the blockbuster exhibit in the area “is for the experts to decide”, said Dollimore.
President Macron: cultural exchange with UK will ‘finish Bayeux Tapestry’
In a letter seen by The Guardian, Dollimore has also urged the chair of the British Museum, Sir George Osborne, to ensure Hasting’s community plays a central role in plans to exhibit the Bayeux Tapestry.
The letter, co-signed by historian Dan Snow, reportedly calls for the reservation of a proportion of exhibition tickets for local residents and assisting with travel costs where necessary.
