STATELY HOMES
Stitched in time
After 24 years, the National Trust’s longest-running conservation project to restore a set of 13 Renaissance tapestries – the largest surviving set in Britain – is now complete.
The Gideon Tapestries, which total over 70 metres in length and are nearly six metres high, were woven in 1578 and tell the story of Gideon, from the Old Testament . In 1592 they were purchased by Bess of Hardwick, a close friend of Elizabeth I and one of the richest women of her time, and they remained on display in the Long Gallery of Bess’s Derbyshire home, Hardwick Hall, until 1999, when they were
