Restoration of 16th-century Derbyshire tapestries ends after 24 years

A closeup of a tapestry at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. It is the National Trust's longest ever conservation project. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

After a 24-year project, the National Trust has finally finished the restoration of a set of 16th-century tapestries at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, the longest such endeavour in its history.

On Thursday, the final tapestry in the set of 13 Gideon tapestries was unveiled on the wall of the long gallery, the culmination of a painstaking effort to clean and handstitch the huge pieces one at a time, at a cost of £1.7m.