The Hastings Embroidery was commissioned by Group Captain Ralph Ward and made by the Royal School of Needlework in 1965 to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings the following year.
Intended to be a modern day equivalent of the Bayeux Tapestry, the embroidery consists of 27 panels, each 9 × 3 ft, and shows 81 great events in British history during the 900 years from 1066 to 1966. It took 22 embroiderers 10 months to finish.
The Hastings Embroidery is worked in applique by hand, with the addition of couched threads and cords, tweed from Scotland, fabrics from the Victoria and Albert Museum, and feathers from London Zoo.
The Embroidery was on public display in Hastings, firstly in the Town Hall and then on the pier in a domed shaped building.
The Hastings Embroidery is currently in storage, and apart from two panels on permanent display in the Town Hall, can not be viewed, despite local campaigns to protest. It has been said that to preserve the cloth and applique that special storage displays would have to constructed and that these would cost too much to provide.
Famous quotes containing the words hastings and/or embroidery:
“If you can’t get a job as a pianist in a brothel you become a royal reporter.”
—Max Hastings (b. 1945)
“It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity; for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honour, and fictitious benevolence.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)