Unique 174-year-old Victorian copy of the Bayeux Tapestry on display in Newcastle this October
Newcastle University’s Great North Museum: Hancock will open a new free exhibition this October
Bayeux-on-Tyne: Drawing the Bayeux Tapestry will give visitors a chance to experience rare sections of a 174-year-old Victorian copy made in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The original Bayeux Tapestry is a nearly 1,000-year-old hand-embroidered cloth, 70 metres long, telling the epic story of England’s conquest by William, Duke of Normandy.
While the original goes on display in London from 10 September, sections of a rare paper facsimile from the library collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle (SANT) will be unveiled at the museum one month later, on 10 October, as part of the British Museum’s Bayeux Around Britain programme, supported by WorldQuant.
Many reproductions of the Bayeux Tapestry have been made over the years, but few are both complete and to scale. Some have used the original hand-embroidery techniques, while others have been made from wood carvings, mosaics, and drawings. This facsimile is one of the rarer full-scale copies.
In the early 1850s, John Collingwood Bruce commissioned this drawing of the Bayeux Tapestry to illustrate a lecture series. It was created by pupils at his school, Percy Street Academy, Newcastle. The primary artist was a schoolboy named John Moffat, who led his classmates in producing a hand-drawn, full-size paper copy.
In 1884, Bruce's copy of the Bayeux Tapestry was mounted on the walls of the Black Gate, the 13th century gatehouse to Newcastle's castle. As time went on, it was forgotten behind bookshelves, gathering grime and smoke. When rediscovered in the 1990s, the panels were moved out of the Black Gate and stored at the Discovery Museum, Blandford Square. Thanks to the generosity of several local sponsors, extensive conservation and careful cleaning are being carried out on the panels ahead of the exhibition.
Bruce's copy is a larger scale than the original and 5 metres longer. The drawing is largely complete, with only two sections missing. It is currently in 35 separate rolls; four of these will be on display at the museum, showing key parts of the story. Visitors will also gain a vivid sense of the original Bayeux Tapestry through striking accompanying visuals from the exhibition at the British Museum.
It’s such a joy to be part of Bayeux Around Britain and to know that these 174-year-old panels will soon be on display to the public, giving visitors the opportunity to discover the extraordinary stories of the Norman conquest, the tapestry itself, and the Newcastle schoolboys who copied it by hand.
The Bayeux Tapestry is a fascinating work of art in itself but, due to its unique history, the SANT facsimile presents an extra layer of interest. We invite you to stand back and admire not only the stories and artistic skills it displays but also the sheer ambition and audacity of pupils and their master in even contemplating such a task. It provokes thoughts about this crucial period of English history but also on the nature and purpose of historical education. I am sure that, for the schoolboys involved in the production of this wonderful facsimile, history became very much alive.
Bayeux-on-Tyne: Drawing the Bayeux Tapestry will be open to the public from Saturday 10 October 2026 to 17 January 2027. Admission is free.
