Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Helena Dollimore (Hastings and Rye) (Lab/Co-op)]

No other work of art is as entwined with our island’s story as the Bayeux tapestry, which quite literally wove my constituency of Hastings, Rye and the villages into our national history. The tapestry’s return home after spending nearly 1,000 years across the channel is a triumph for Britain, and it is testament to this Labour Government’s success in strengthening our relations with our closest European neighbours.

This loan is a symbol of our shared history with our friends in France. I pay tribute to all those involved in arranging it, and in particular to Antoine Verney, the director of the Bayeux Tapestry Museum who sadly passed away earlier this month. I also thank everyone involved on both sides of the channel, including the British Museum and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

William the Conqueror’s landing on our Sussex shore is a story familiar to every schoolchild in Britain. The date 1066 is etched into our national consciousness, and the battle of Hastings was a defining moment in British history that continues to shape who we are today. While historians—and, indeed, sometimes Members of the House—may disagree on exactly where the battle took place, a millennium later the clash between the Saxons and the Normans still resonates across our land. In fact, Hastings and the surrounding area—I see other hon. Members who represent it here in the Chamber—is known as “1066 country”, so inseparable is our identity from the events immortalised in the Bayeux tapestry.

Many streets in Hastings bear names referencing Saxon, Norman, William and Harold, and even our local hospital is aptly named the Conquest hospital. Yet although we have often found ourselves at the centre of historic events, we have not always felt the benefits.

Across Hastings, Rye and the villages, over 60% of young people leave school without a level 4—the equivalent of grade C—or above in English and maths GCSE. The Sutton Trust has said that we are in the bottom 10 places nationally for social mobility, and our life expectancy is below the national average. We may be a similar distance from London as Brighton, but our train takes twice as long. Our infrastructure has suffered from 14 years of neglect and our roads are riddled with potholes. All that is symbolic of how we have too often been forgotten by Westminster, Whitehall and London cultural circles.

The Bayeux tapestry exhibition at the British Museum will be the exhibition of a generation, and I want children from 1066 country to see it and feel pride in knowing that the story it tells began in the place they call home. When I go into our local schools, our young people are proud to be from Hastings. They must not be priced out of a ticket and a chance to celebrate the legacy of our town on the national stage.

I urge the British Museum to guarantee places for schoolchildren from Hastings and the surrounding area, and to support the cost of travel so that access is not determined by how well off our local schools are. My challenge to the British Museum is for it to live up to its name and to truly be the museum of Britain, ensuring that young people from Hastings and 1066 country get to visit. I, like my colleagues, have had constructive discussions with the museum and I stand ready to work with it and local schools to make that happen.

This Labour Government have rightly set the expectation that London museums must work harder to be genuinely national institutions by opening up opportunities for young people from every part of our country. What better way to do that and to celebrate the return of the Bayeux tapestry than by ensuring that the people of Hastings and 1066 country are truly part of this national moment? That is why I have asked the British Museum to reserve at least 1,066 tickets for local residents.

I thank the historian Dan Snow and David Dimbleby, who is a nearby resident, for supporting me in the campaign. They, too, know that local children being able to see the exhibition for themselves could inspire the next generation of historians. Our area helped make this piece of history; it must now fully share in its legacy.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady. The only subject that I excelled in at school was history, but I am sure that the hon. Lady exceeded me by far. She has a love of history, as do I after all these years. Does she agree that seeing the Bayeux tapestry, that incredible piece of history, will be an inspiration for children, helping them to understand the rich history of this wonderful nation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? Just thinking about it, I am having flashbacks to third year history. Does she further agree that we must ensure that schools from all the nations are able to bring children, and that perhaps funding pots to help schools with the costs should be considered? I congratulate the hon. Lady, who has done well.

[Helena Dollimore]

The hon. Member is right that schoolchildren must be able to access the exhibition. They should not be put off by the price of a ticket to the exhibition or a train ticket—or even a flight in his case. It is really important. I speak as someone who went to local state schools and was lucky enough to go on and study history at university. Who knows who we could inspire by allowing schoolchildren to see the exhibition?

We want schoolchildren to see the exhibition, but we also want to encourage visitors to the exhibition in north London to take a further step back in time and visit 1066 country, the place where it all happened. I am urging many of our transport providers to make sure that we can make it easier for tourists to visit 1066 country during this important moment, and that includes urging Southeastern to look at how it can make it quicker for tourists to visit our area by train. This also extends to visitors from abroad, and that is why I have been campaigning to bring back international trains to Ashford International, to encourage our European neighbours across the channel to visit us in 1066 country and in Hastings and Rye, and to make that visit easier. Hopefully, this time they will be armed with buckets and spades rather than bows and arrows, and they will certainly receive a much warmer welcome than they did in 1066.

Not only is 1066 country rich in history, but it is rich in landscape, heritage and culture. We might be tucked away on the south coast, but we punch well above our weight in our visitor and tourist experience. From Hastings museum to Hastings castle, Hastings contemporary gallery, Rye heritage centre, Camber Sands, Rye harbour nature reserve, Hastings country park and many more, we have so much to offer people wanting to visit. With next year marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror, we will celebrate this Year of the Normans with special events across Hastings, Rye and the villages.

I would like to see one of the many replicas of the Bayeux tapestry put on display in Hastings. I cannot think of any better place to be named the UK’s town of culture, which Hastings hopes to be named next year.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Arts (Ian Murray)]

I am pleased to respond to this debate. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore) not only on securing this debate, but on her lovely speech. I noticed that she did a little bit of lobbying for Hastings to become the town of culture, and I am sure my officials noted that.

This will be the first time since the Bayeux tapestry left the UK over 900 years ago that it returns. It is a very important moment. I was reflecting that perhaps the modern battle is between the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Dr Mullan) and my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye on where the battle actually took place. Perhaps there will be a tapestry made of that particular battle in the years to come. The tapestry coming to the UK is more than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—it is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. We must celebrate that and get the most out of it, as hon. Members have said.

I start by paying tribute, as my hon. Friend did, to the director of the Bayeux Museum, Monsieur Antoine Verney, who sadly passed away just two weeks ago, and extend our heartfelt sympathies to his family and to his colleagues. His contribution over the years to promoting knowledge of the tapestry and sharing it widely, including with colleagues in the British Museum, is a lasting legacy that we must honour and build upon when the tapestry arrives here this year.

I extend my gratitude, on behalf of the UK Government, to our friends on the French side, who are doing so much to enable the loan, including President Macron, of course, and the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati. Their role in supporting this loan has been crucial to making it happen.

I also pay tribute to the hard work and commitment of the UK Government’s envoy on the tapestry, Lord Ricketts, and his French counterpart, Philippe Bélaval. I thank all the people who are making this loan possible, including the French Ambassador to the UK, the President of the Normandy region, the Mayors of Bayeux, Rouen, and Caen, as well as senior figures in the regional cultural authority and, of course, colleagues at the British Museum.

The Bayeux tapestry will be on display at the British Museum from September 2026 through to July 2027. I thank the British Museum for working so hard to enable this exhibition, and for its generosity in loaning the Sutton Hoo treasures, the Lewis chess pieces and more than 220 drawings by Renaissance masters from its collection to museums in Caen and Rouen in Normandy for displays in 2027 to coincide with the celebration of the year of the Normans, marking 1,000 years since the birth of William the Conqueror. I am not sure if the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) remembers the birth of William the Conqueror.

[Jim Shannon]

It wasn’t far away!

[Ian Murray]

It is an enormous task to deliver such a historic exhibition, but doing so in such a short timeframe is a particular challenge. Usually, exhibitions at our major museums take three to five years to plan, but the British Museum is rising to the challenge of putting this exhibition on in a little over one year, as well as developing a national programme of education and engagement to spread knowledge of the tapestry and the Norman conquest throughout the country. On the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye made about deprivation and educational attainment in her constituency, I think we should use this as a platform and foundation on which to build, for children, children of the future, and the inspired historians we may be able to get as a result of this.

The tapestry is unique, and care of it is underpinned by expertise on both sides of the channel. Concern has been expressed in some quarters about whether the tapestry will be able to travel safely. I am pleased to say that the British Museum is working closely with its French counterparts, and is bringing its world-leading expertise to bear to ensure that the tapestry can travel here safely for this unprecedented loan and be seen by as many people as possible. That is key.

I understand that many areas of the country claim close links with the Norman conquest, so many Members of this House would claim a special interest in this area, including those from where the Bayeux tapestry seems likely to have been made, Canterbury. The north of England also has historic connections to the Norman conquest—they are not necessarily exactly positive—due to the harrying of the north carried out by William the Conqueror. We can all agree that the battle of Hastings, depicted on the tapestry, is of critical importance to the history of us all.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye on her tenacious campaigning for her constituents, particularly in the educational field, and seeking to ensure that schoolchildren in her constituency and neighbouring constituencies are able to see the exhibition and understand the significance of the area that they live in to the history of our country. I have been assured by the British Museum that schools in her area will receive priority booking, reflecting the salience of the area to the events of 1066, and the huge local interest. I understand that she, together with the British Museum, is working with Southeastern Railway to offer at least 1,066 tickets, at heavily reduced rates, to London to schools in 1066 country.