Bayeux Tapestry Tours

Reading Museum runs guided tours of the Bayeux Tapestry facsimile inside the Town Hall on Blagrave Street. It's Britain's only full-scale replica of the original, a 70-metre piece that's been on permanent display there since 1895. The tour takes you around the whole thing, and the guides walk you through the story of the Norman Conquest and the history of the tapestry itself.

There's a fair bit of history behind the replica. It was completed in June 1886 by 35 women of the Leek Embroidery Society, who reproduced the original stitch by stitch from tracings of hand-coloured photographs held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It came to Reading in 1895, bought by former Mayor Arthur Hill during a world tour. It hangs inside the Town Hall, not far from the ruins of Reading Abbey, which King Henry I — son of William the Conqueror — founded in 1121.

People who've been on the tours describe the guides as knowledgeable, engaging and first-class, and they give a clear account of the Conquest and the tapestry. The British Museum's exhibition of the original in London sold out, which has driven interest in the Victorian replica, and the Year of the Normans in 2026-2027 is making the gallery especially popular with visitors and schools.

Tours run every Tuesday and Thursday from 2.30pm to 3.30pm, and on Saturdays from 2pm to 3pm, at Reading Museum, inside the Town Hall, Blagrave Street, Reading, RG1 1QH. It's £15 per person.