THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY

Turold the dwarf in the
company of William's knights

Yesterday was my birthday. As I mentioned before, I'm now 36 and old enough to claim as many adult years as went before. You'd think I'd be more excited about this than I am - but life goes on. I didn't really make a big thing of it, so I'm not surprised that only a few people remembered.

For the last few years, I've spent my birthday in London, visiting a museum and generally enjoying the anonymity that the capital affords me. However, as it stands, a large proportion of the countryside between here and there is currently underwater, and train travel is famously tricky. And by famously tricky, I mean of course: a total nightmare.

I didn't fancy cramming myself into the buffet car with a herd of grumpy commuters, phoning their bosses with the 'I'm-going-to-be-late' call and huffing into each other's armpits. I decided to stay in Reading.

I did go to a museum though. I went to Reading Museum. So it is then that Reading Museum is next on my list for the Tour of Reading's Interesting Places.*

Reading Museum is inside the Town Hall and it displays a whole load of things that are relevant to our history: There are artifacts from the Abbey, there are old-fashioned biscuit tins and sepia pictures of Reading Football Club from the 1920s. There are bronze-age fragments and Victorian bus stops alongside stuffed badgers and glass-cases glistening with old coins and ancient ivory teeth.

Pride of place though at the Museum, is the famous Reading copy of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Embroidered by 19th Century seamstresses, this facsimile stretches almost endlessly around the upstairs gallery, displaying the famous events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in October 1066. Not for the first time, I followed the story around the room.

I like trying to work out what the Latin bits mean. They're all translated underneath the display but it's fun working out the story first-hand. It's like a code and a puzzle, wrapped up in this colossal 11th Century comic-strip.

UBI HAROLD DUX ANGLORUM ET SUI MILITES EQUITANT AD BOSHAM
Here's Harold (English Duke) and his soldiers riding to Bosham

UBI HAROLD ET WIDO PARABOLANT
Here's Harold having a chat with Guy

HIC NAVIS VENIT IN TERRAM WILLELMI DUKIS
Here's a ship coming to Duke William's country [to tell him that Harold has taken the throne of England, after previously having promised allegiance to William's own claim].

HIC WILLEM DUX IUSSIT NAVES EDIFICARE
Here [and rather ominously] William says, "Build some ships."


It's great. You can trace emotions, loyalties, fears, power-plays, miscommunication, religious fervour, superstition, patronage and biased-reporting... right the way around the story. Even a dwarf makes an appearance, not to mention a tabloid-style expose of a recent scandal. Human behaviour has not changed much, it seems.

Alright, it doesn't have much to do with Reading. It was embroidered in Gloucester, I think, and one of those moustachioed benefactors bought it for the town. However, it is here and if you get a chance, you should definitely go and see it.

*Last year I got fed up with people bad-mouthing my town and me joining in, so I decided to document interesting things and places in Reading to prove that it's not all smelly-alley and festival-litter.