Secrecy surrounds Bayeux Tapestry's imminent Channel crossing

Workers and volunteers prepare to pack the Bayeux tapestry to transfer to the British Museum, at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum, in Bayeux, northwestern France, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. AP - Lou Benoist

Under cover of darkness and heavy police guard, the Bayeux Tapestry – a 68-metre embroidered chronicle of the Norman conquest of England, stitched in wool not long after the events it depicts – is set to cross the Channel within days, the official overseeing its move to London has revealed.

Peter Ricketts, the United Kingdom's Bayeux Tapestry envoy, would not be drawn on exactly when the nearly 1,000-year-old “incredibly fragile” embroidery would leave its home in Normandy for the British Museum.