Edith Swan-Neck and the Bayeux Tapestry

The making of the Bayeux Tapestry is dramatised in Jonathan Myerson’s latest drama.

A group of nuns in Canterbury are sewing a large-scale embroidery depicting the recent conquest of England when they are interrupted by a highly skilled seamstress wishing to join them in their work. Beonnu, played by Hattie Morahan, seems to have detailed knowledge of the defeated King Harold, and the events leading up to the Norman Conquest, that brings her into direct conflict with the French speaking Lords who want the Tapestry to tell a different story.

Most historians now agree that the Tapestry (which is actually not a tapestry but an embroidery) was sewn in England, probably by nuns and probably in Kent. It looks like the women were at least partially successful in sneaking elements into the story as certain sequences seem to support the English King defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings (and who in fact appears more frequently than William the Conqueror).

Could this be down to Edith Swan-Neck herself, mother of Harold’s children? And what ever happened to the final panels of the Tapestry, where William’s coronation is conspicuously absent?

As a largely Pagan Britain becomes ‘civilised’ by the Normans, this small group of women make a statement that echoes down the years, reaching us today as we look at their magnificent work.

Beonnu ..... Hattie Morahan
Eawynn ..... Rosie Sheehy
Leofgifu ..... Becky Wright
Hildelith ..... Tamzin Griffin
Scolland ..... Alexandre Déwen
Eustace ..... Bijan Daneshmand
Vital ..... Charlie Anson

Original music (Dulcimer): Zebedee C. Budworth
Studio engineer: Paul Clark
Sound design: Alisdair McGregor
Writer: Jonathan Myerson
Producer and Director: Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4