Rarely displayed hand-painted plaster casts taken directly from the Bayeux Tapestry will tour six venues across the UK, beginning appropriately enough in Hastings, as part of a nationwide programme accompanying the historic Tapestry’s exhibition at the British Museum.
The 19th-century casts will first go on display at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery before travelling to Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, the National Library of Wales, Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire, The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels and Rochester Cathedral.
The Spotlight Loan forms part of Bayeux Around Britain, supported by WorldQuant, which will extend the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry programme beyond London through loans, replicas, exhibitions, events and educational activities.
The casts themselves have an extraordinary — and by today’s conservation standards slightly alarming — connection to the original embroidery.
In 1816, artist Charles Alfred Stothard was commissioned by London’s Society of Antiquaries to produce the first complete colour drawings of the Bayeux Tapestry. While undertaking the project, Stothard applied wax directly to the surface of the medieval embroidery to make moulds of individual details — an intervention that would certainly not be permitted today.
Plaster casts were subsequently made from the moulds, preserving remarkably direct impressions of the Tapestry’s surface. Three were acquired together by the British Museum in 1878 and are now being sent around the country.
The three casts depict some of the central figures in the story of 1066. One is taken from scene 30 and shows Harold Godwinson at his coronation; another captures scene 46, in which William, Duke of Normandy, hears news of Harold’s whereabouts; and the third reproduces scene 48, showing William in full armour holding a spear.
Their journey begins in Hastings, placing these unusual fragments of the Tapestry’s history close to the landscape in which the events they depict reached their bloody conclusion.
“We have been working with colleagues around the UK to deliver a programme of loans and activity that will extend far beyond London to make this a truly national moment,” said Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE, Director of the British Museum.
“This is perhaps the most ambitious and inclusive programme we or in fact any museum in the UK has done, bringing together over 60 partners across the UK and Channel Islands. It’s only right that Hastings, a place steeped in history and shaped by the seismic events depicted in the Tapestry, should be the first stop for our Spotlight Loan. I’m delighted that this 19th-century cast can travel far and wide and be accessible to thousands of people around the UK.”
The tour won’t rely on visitors simply looking at the original casts. A life-sized 3D-printed replica will allow people to touch the impressions left by the embroidery, while hand-embroidered replicas of details from the Tapestry will give an indication of how the original might feel. Museums will also receive replicas and learning materials for work with schools and local communities.
Hastings Museum & Art Gallery is planning exhibitions, displays and events around the casts and the events of 1066. At Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery they will be shown within the recently refurbished Norman Keep, alongside Norman objects related to those depicted in the Tapestry and a digital version of the complete work.
“This trio of Stothard’s casts are almost as exceptional as the Bayeux Tapestry itself,” said Millie Horton-Insch, Project Curator at the British Museum. “Taken directly from the Tapestry, they capture the textures and imagery which make the Bayeux Tapestry such an absorbing work of art.
“It feels especially fitting that the Stothard casts will be on display in Hastings, not far from the site of the Battle of Hastings. Visitors to the Spotlight Loan will be able to experience something of the magic of seeing the original and it’s hugely exciting that it will be brought to new audiences across the nation.”
The programme accompanies The Bayeux Tapestry, presented by Igor Tulchinsky, at the British Museum, where the original medieval embroidery is being shown until July 2027.
“One of the most meaningful aspects of supporting the Bayeux Tapestry is the opportunity to bring its story to a broader audience,” said Igor Tulchinsky, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of WorldQuant.
“I have always been drawn to solving complex problems, and this programme extends access in a creative way – using physical casts to offer more people an engaging way to experience a work of exceptional historical significance, even while the Tapestry itself remains in London.”
Almost 900 years after the events of 1066 and more than two centuries after Stothard pressed wax against one of the world’s most famous surviving medieval artworks, the impressions he captured will now take another journey around Britain.
Bayeux Around Britain: casting a masterpiece, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery 10th September – 8th November 2026 Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery 12th November 2026 – 10th January 2027
And National Library of Wales, Rievaulx Abbey, The Great Tapestry of Scotland, Rochester Cathedral (all dates TBC)
MORE: britishmuseum.org/bayeux-around-britain-casting-masterpiece
Bayeux Around Britain
Bayeux Around Britain, supported by WorldQuant, is a nationwide programme. Through a network of more than 60 partner organisations providing education programming, including museums, galleries, libraries, archives, cathedrals and heritage sites, the programme will ensure that Bayeux Tapestry-related activity is within an hour’s drive of two-thirds of the country, while the digital experience is available to all schoolchildren everywhere. The initiative reflects the Museum’s ambition that this historic loan should be a national moment, reaching far beyond London and engaging communities across the UK.
