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Last stitches added to Alderney tapestry

ALDERNEY residents have put the final stitches to the island's own Bayeux tapestry - a year after work on it commenced.

Over 12 months the project snowballed into community project everyone wanted to be part of - including Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall during their Jubilee visit to the island.

The original Bayeux Tapestry illustrates the story of the Norman Conquest of Britain in the 11th century. But the final section, showing the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings and the coronation of William the Conqueror, is missing.

So, armed with a £300 grant from the States to buy threads and a wooden frame, that's what needlework enthusiast Kate Russell set out to recreate, all made of the same linen and wool threads, and uses the same stitches, colour and style of the original.

Alderney's eight foot addition to the existing Bayeux Tapestry has seen 416 of people visit the island's library and take up a needle to do their bit. The oldest contributor was 100-year-old Felicity Crump.

Mrs Russell said she could never have imagined how successful it would become. 'It's been a phenomenal success,' she said. 'W have had 416 individuals who have added their stitches, some thousands of stitches, some perhaps only a few. There have been at least double that number who have come in and made admiring comments and wanted to know the history and what the images meant. So in that way it has achieved another of the project's designs, which was to acquaint people with how the Channel Islands became English.

'It's been something that has sparked an interest I could never have dreamed of.'

What will be her enduring memory of a year at the tapestry? 'Oh, the fellowship around the frame," she laughed. "I don't think I've used that phrase before but it really has been quite remarkable. People have come in here and spoken of how relaxing it has been to do the stitching. Well, it's done something more than that. There have been such kind thoughts, people helping each other, people comparing notes, people just having a relaxing time conversing with each other.'

Pauline Black was the artist who drew the scenes for stitchers to sew. She said: 'It was just a drawing before -what it's become has been overwhelming, and so is the fact that it's finished. It's become an entity, on its own, it's part of Alderney. I'm thrilled to bits with it.'

Mrs Russell is now putting a backing onto the tapestry at home so that it can be exhibited around the island.

States President Stuart Trought said the tapestry would be used as a tool to help promote the island.

'I think it's a wonderful example of what the island can produce when it pulls together, and I think it has a huge potential to focus interest on Alderney,' he said.

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