One of the most significant battles in English history has been immortalised in a woollen tapestry which has taken years to create.
The artwork, similar to the famous Bayeux Tapestry, records the events of the Battle of Stamford Bridge - which happened the same year as the 1066 Battle of Hastings.
Twenty-five women, the majority living within an arrow’s flight of the East Riding of Yorkshire village, accompanied by an expert in textile art and helped by the secretary of the local history group, spent almost six years on stitching a story of the Battle of Stamford Bridge, of September 25, 1066.
The impact of the conflict on the victorious fighting force of Harold Godwinson was significant.
In just a matter of weeks, he led a forced march from Stamford Bridge to the more well-known Battle of Hastings on the south coast, and his death, which saw the dawn of the Norman conquest of England.
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One of the band of 25 stitchers, Ann Chatten, took up the story which began in 2015 with a ‘mover and shaker’ in the East Riding of Yorkshire village – Tom Wyles.
Ann said: “It was around 2015 when Tom – co-founder and secretary of the Battle of Stamford Bridge Society - said that a tapestry chronicling the engagement which saw the end of the Viking era in England was the ‘missing link’ between those reflecting the conflicts in Fulford and Hastings of the same year."
The project is not a copy of the Norman tapestry but created 'in the style and spirit'.
Researchers had to create their own images of the Viking warriors in a work which linked up with the Fulford Tapestry and Bayeux Tapestry to bring together the three major battles fought in the one year.
Ann indicated that Tom thought the project might take a year or so, and said with some of his own money invested, the project was born and the story boards began to take shape.
She said that whilst he knew an enormous amount about local history, he knew a little less about what was involved in planning and stitching each of the metre-long panels.
Prior to laying down the first stitches on fabric which cost £100 per metre, the Stamford Bridge team learned the detail of the outline stitch and original Bayeux stitch from professional textile artist, and York Minster broderer, Shirley Smith.
Ann said: “We all had to do a little test piece.
“The end result - couching it to the fabric, produces texture and movement, especially in the horses.”
Ann showed The Press a proud yellow equine warrior – roughly the size of an A5 piece of paper - which took her 15 hours to stitch.
She said: “Wool was just as expensive back then, and so the work was carried out all in one style of stitching and almost all on one side of the fabric.”
Each stitcher added their own name – in runes – to the piece, and also included a contemporary symbol of their own.
In addition there is the odd nod to modernity with a mobile phone in one panel and three ‘observers’ to the battle in another – Chris Rock, co-founder of the Battle of Stamford Bridge Heritage Society and designer of the tapestry, Tom Wyles himself, and Steve Mercer – a local re-enactor.
Ann said that Tom sadly passed away one year into the project and, as costs ramped up, the self-funded East Riding of Yorkshire group took the show on the road, locally and also to key sites such as Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, showing off samples of the quality of the work and putting up individual ‘squares’ of the tapestry for sponsorship.
The finished 15-panel work was completed in 2021 and now takes pride of place on the walls of the Platform 66 Heritage Centre inside The Old Station Club in Church Road.
For more information about how and when it can be seen, visit www.theoldstationclub.co.uk
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