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Chair's Newsletter May 2026

Tuesday 12 May 2026 at 2.15 pm
Craig Y Don Community Centre
Threads of History: The World of the Bayeux Tapestry
Rupert Willoughby

Dear Members,

Welcome to the May Newsletter. This is my first as the new Chair. The meeting starts as usual with tea and coffee being available from 1.15 to 2 pm. This gives time for everyone to catch up, buy a raffle ticket and make arrangements for Membership renewals if applicable. Please use the top door and sign in with Sue our membership secretary.

This month Rupert Willoughby will be giving us a lively introduction to the Bayeux Tapestry. This is so much more than the story of Hastings. Rupert unravels some of its mysteries and places it in the context of its age establishing it as a landmark in the history of Western art.

The 70-metre tapestry was commissioned by the Bishop of Bayeux who fought at Hastings. It was executed by skilled English craftsmen. The tapestry is the last survivor of a vanished art form. It depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and the Battle of Hastings. Its lively illustrations also reveal languid, party loving moustachioed Englishmen, cavalcades of noble huntsmen and the snorting Norman cavalry poised to charge into battle! The tapestry is the next best thing to a moving motion picture from the time.

Rupert Willoughby, our lecturer, is a writer, researcher, poet, self-proclaimed Latin-whisperer and impresario of ancient Greeks. He has a passion for castles, lakes and uncovering layers of the past. Rupert is a graduate with First Class Honours from the University of London, where he studied the Byzantine or Medieval Greek Empire. He has taught in a series of prestigious preparatory schools including Ludgrove School, Arnold House and St Paul's Cathedral School.

He is the author of several books. His latest book is  Mountain Gunner: The Wartime Adventures of Tony Fowle, M.C., 1939-1951,(2025, Chiselbury Press). He has also written A Head of his Time: The Life and Opinions of Ernest Golledge, Reforming Headmaster, 1872-1951 and the bestselling Life in Medieval England (1997, Pitkin). Rupert has furthermore written a series of histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen's Village (2000) and Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture (2010). He has published numerous articles in journals, contributes regular obituaries to The Daily Telegraph and is an experienced lecturer accredited to The Arts Society since 2011.

The Bayeux Tapestry will be on display at the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027 and would be well worth a visit. The Museum will also draw on its own collection as well as other loans to tell a rich story about this period of history. This will be the first time that the tapestry has been shown in the UK since it was made, almost 1,000 years ago. Booking opens 1 July for September to December 2026 tickets. Please see the British Museum website for further details.


Wednesday May 6 2026: Halifax Day Trip to Shibden Hall and The Piece Hall
This is a reminder to those members who are booked on our forthcoming day trip to Halifax in West Yorkshire this coming Wednesday. We leave promptly as usual at 9 am from the bus stop just outside Craig-y-Don Community Centre. Please park as directed in the car park. We will be there from 8.30 am directing parking! It will take about two and half hours to reach our destination and the same amount of time on the return journey later in the day depending on traffic. Please note we may not be back until at least 6.30 pm. We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday for what should be an enjoyable and interesting day which Carol has organised for us.

Our first lecture of the Autumn after the summer break will be on Tuesday 8 September. Brian Slater will be discussing 'From Negative to Positive: Photography's Long Road to Recognition as Art.'

Best wishes,
Emily Purnell

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