National Trust completes tapestry renovation project

The National Trust has announced the completion of a £1.7m, 24-year-long project to restore a set of 16th century tapestries.

The 13 tapestries were removed from Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire in 1999 for conservation treatment. The final late-Renaissance tapestry has now been returned to the hall.

The Gideon tapestries are the largest surviving set in the UK. They measure nearly six metres high and more than 70 metres in length.

Each tapestry took more than two years to restore. The process included vacuum cleaning and documenting each tapestry in detail, before sending them to Belgium for specialist wet cleaning.

Conservators working with the National Trust used specialist conservation stitching to replace damaged areas and strengthen the structure of the tapestries, as well as improving the appearances of 20th century reweaving.

To maintain consistency, they used yarns that were hand-dyed following ‘recipes books’ that provided instructions for creating bespoke colours. They also followed ‘stitch guides’ that helped to ensure new stitching was correctly spaced to create visual harmony but could still be differentiated from the original stitches.

“It is the largest tapestry conservation project ever undertaken by the National Trust and everyone at the studio has been involved at some point,” said Textile Conservator Elaine Owers, who began working on the project as an intern in 2008, before progressing to project manage some of the largest tapestries.

“There is a real sense of pride as we see the final tapestry hung in position.”

The conservation project has secured the future of the tapestries for at least a century, Textile Conservator Yoko Hanegreefs said.