Bristol professor could have solved Bayeux Tapestry mystery

“Many, and perhaps all, of these conflicts and contradictions can be resolved”

It is perhaps the most famous pieces of historical crafting in existence, but now, as preparations are made for the Bayeux Tapestry to return to England for the first time in centuries, a professor from Bristol has come up with an answer to some of its greatest mysteries.

Prof Benjamin Pohl, a historian from the University of Bristol, has published a new paper on the history of the Bayeux Tapestry which he said could solve some of the unanswered questions surrounding the vast cloth.

The Tapestry – it’s an embroidery not actually a tapestry – famously depicts the events leading up to and of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror ended 500 years of Anglo-Saxon rule and colonised England, and then Wales, for the Normans.

But there are huge unanswered questions around who made it, why, where and where it was displayed, because the first surviving historical record of the tapestry comes from an inventory in the cathedral in Bayeux, France, in 1476 – around 400 years after it was first created.

It’s now widely thought the Bayeux Tapestry was actually made by English women in Kent in the 1080s, probably on the orders of William’s half brother Odo, who was both the Bishop of Bayeux and the Earl of Kent.

But the theory that it was intended for Bayeux originally has now been challenged by Prof Pohl from Bristol, who said he believes the tapestry was originally made specifically to be displayed in the new refectory – the monks’ canteen – at St Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury.

Work on the new refectory began in around 1080, at the same time that the tapestry was commissioned, and Prof Pohl said he believes the evidence points to it being a bespoke part of the plans for the new building, with the story told by the tapestry serving as mealtime reading for the monks in what was then and still is the most important church in England.

“The truth is: we simply do not know where the Bayeux Tapestry was hung – or indeed if it was hung anywhere at all – prior to 1476,” he said. “My article offers a new explanation by arguing that the most suitable place for displaying and engaging with the Bayeux Tapestry would have been in the monastic refectory of St Augustine’s during mealtimes,” he added.

Professor Pohl said he and his students began investigating all the possibilities and theories around the origins of the tapestry and came to the conclusion that the most likely was that it was made in Canterbury for the monks in Canterbury.

“The more we talked about this, the more I wondered whether a refectory setting could help explain some of the apparent and puzzling contradictions identified in existing scholarship: for example, was the Bayeux Tapestry intended for a religious or a secular audience? Did this audience have to be literate in order to engage fully with the artefact and its narrative? Does it tell an English or a Norman story, or both/neither?” he said.

“Many, and perhaps all, of these conflicts and contradictions can be resolved by embracing the refectory setting proposed in my new article.

“To be clear: we have no concrete evidence of the Bayeux Tapestry’s presence at St Augustine’s, though this may well be due a combination of circumstances which meant that the abbey’s new refectory designed in the 1080s – perhaps specifically to exhibit the Tapestry – was not completed until the 1120s,” Prof Pohl added.

“Consequently, the Tapestry might have been put in storage for more than a generation and forgotten about until it eventually found its way to Bayeux three centuries later.

“There still is no way to prove conclusively the Bayeux Tapestry’s whereabouts prior to 1476, and perhaps there never will be, but the evidence presented here makes the monastic refectory of St Augustine’s a serious contender,” he said.

“Just as today, in the Middle Ages mealtimes were always an important occasion for social gathering, collective reflection, hospitality and entertainment, and the celebration of communal identities. In this context, the Bayeux Tapestry would have found a perfect setting,” he added.

In 2026, to mark the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, the French authorities are loaning the Bayeux Tapestry to Britain, and it will be on display in a specially-created exhibition in London.