‘Remarkable relic lands at British Museum within months – insured at 800m’

Almost 230 feet of embroidered cloth, stitched on these very shores nearly 1,000 years ago, is due to make its historic return to England this autumn. The loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum – one of the most keenly-anticipated exhibitions of all time – is expected to draw around 7.5 million visitors and an appreciable boost to the economy during its nine-month stay. But what’s all the fuss about? Well, 1066 is a date that must have been scrawled across millions of children’s exercise books, etched into the collective memory, alongside 1666 and “divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived”. But it endures not simply as a memorised date; it marks a profound turning point in our country’s history.

This was the moment a new ruling order took hold, unceremoniously casting out the old and bringing in the new, reshaping England’s language and landscape for centuries to come. Even today, the foundations laid by William the Conqueror are still visible. They echo through the nation’s culture and institutions, including the convention of numbering monarchs which restarted at one from his reign onward.

Nowhere is that legacy more visible than across the sites in the care of English Heritage. We certainly have the Normans to thank for the hundreds of castles which sprung up around the country in the years which followed the battle. At English Heritage, we’re extremely proud to be the charity that cares for the site of the Battle of Hastings itself – one of more than 400 places we look after up and down England.

Among those are more than 50 sites which reflect what happened in the years after the Norman Conquest. From Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire to Dover Castle down in Kent, our collection of sites reflects the building of castles, abbeys and indeed whole towns.

While the Bayeux Tapestry offers a view of medieval life before the invasion of England and culminates in the dramatic clash between the forces of William the Conqueror and Harold Godwinson, it also tells a story about who decides how the past is remembered.

A popular aphorism suggests history is written by the victors and that’s almost certainly true in this case. The tapestry was most likely commissioned by the winning Norman forces and crafted by English embroiderers within a few years of the battle. It is a piece of persuasion as much as documentation, telling a story of triumph, divine right and of rumoured arrows in eyes. This is where English Heritage comes into its own.

If the British Museum offers the artefact – crafted on linen in coloured woollen yarns in 58 scenes – English Heritage offers the context, and to truly understand the Battle of Hastings, you need to stand in the spot where it happened.

At Battle Abbey in East Sussex, this is possible as the story moves from thread to landscape. From the slope of the battlefield to its strategic viewpoints, the tangible human scale of impact and sacrifice becomes reality. Touch your hand to the once war-torn earth and imagine the ordinary people.

Take in not just victory, but loss, upheaval and the lived experience on both sides. The Abbey itself, founded by William the Conqueror on the site of his victory, is a monument of commemoration but also atonement.

It’s estimated that the Bayeux Tapestry is insured for something in the region of £800million, but its real worth surely cannot be measured. It is a treasure, and its arrival in London will be a rare cultural moment – marking a historic agreement with France and a once in a lifetime opportunity for many to see it in the UK.

Finally, I hope that everyone who wants to see this remarkable relic is afforded the opportunity when it goes on display from September until July next year.

But its greatest value might just lie in what it prompts us as a nation to do next. It’s my hope many of us will choose to step beyond the museum and visit the historic landscapes in our local communities. After all, history is not confined to the glass cases of antiquity, it is written into the ground beneath our feet, waiting to be read.

Tony Hales CBE is chair of English Heritage