Bayeux tapestry arrives in UK for first time in 900 years

The Bayeux Tapestry has arrived in the UK, for the first time since it is believed to have been created here nearly 1,000 years ago.

Chaperoned from a secret location in northern France by a police guard, it was driven into a loading bay at the British Museum, which will put it on display in September.

The 70m-long 11th Century embroidery depicts in 58 scenes events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and Norman Conquest of England in 1066 - the moment that changed the country forever.

The heavy-looking crate, encased in an aluminium frame, was lowered out of the lorry in front of a select crowd including the French ambassador to the UK and the director of the British Museum.

Nick Cullinan, the director of the British Museum, said: "We've just witnessed something rather extraordinary, which is the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum but specifically it is returning to England for the first time in almost 1,000 years.

"It feels like a really remarkable thing not just to witness but to be part of, and we're so excited to share it with as many people as possible."

Millie Horton-Insch, project curator of British Museum Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, said: "It probably sounds a bit strange to be that excited at seeing a lorry reverse into a loading bay and a box removed, but when you consider the object within it, how old it was, how close to the events it depicts it was made, by people who lived through those events, it's really profound.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in the Times that the loan was "a gesture of trust, a tangible expression of a long-standing friendship and a sign of our shared desire to see France and the United Kingdom build their future together".

But in France ever since the announcement, there has been some disquiet that a work of such fragility and historical importance was to go on loan more than 300 miles away. A French petition to stop it called it a "heritage crime".

-BBC