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book. Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval from History Hit, I'm Matt Lewis.

The Battle of Hastings is seen as one of those seismic moments in history, particularly in England,

though its impact was felt much more widely over the centuries that followed too.

One of the most charismatic sources of the medieval period is the Bayer Tapestry,

a set of images that tell the story of William I's conquest of England.

I'm delighted to be joined today by Dave Musgrove, who's new book The Story of the Bayer Tapestry

and ravelling the Norman Conquest written along with Michael Lewis, who is no relation.

Takes a fresh look at this fascinating source. Thank you very much for joining us today, Dave.

Hey, Matt Hayden. I'm fantastic, thank you.

So what can you tell us first off about the Bayer Tapestry as an object? What do we know about

when it's made and who it's made by? Right, okay, so the first thing to say is we know very little

about when it was made, why it was made, who made it, or where it was made. We can make educated

guesses about all of that, but we don't actually know anything. What we do know is what it is like

as a physical object now. We know it's about 70 meters or 200 feet long. It's about half a meter

wide or high depending on how you look at it. It's composed of nine separate panels, which were

stitched together, and it's linen panels upon which woolen thread has been stitched into it.

So it's not actually a tapestry in the technical definition of a tapestry is, in fact, an embroidery.

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