Middleton Tapestry Success

9.08.47pm GMT Thu 3rd Dec 2009

Middleton's Bayeux Tapestry - three large tapestries totalling 24 ft that chronicle the history of Middleton through its buildings, businesses and organisations - is finally expected to come home. The painstaking work from 60 volunteers was first started in the mid 1990s and completed for the Millennium celebrations. The tapestries were displayed for a short time in the old Middleton Civic Centre, but then have been kept in storage in Rochdale ever since.

The campaign to find a permanent display for these remarkable pieces of Middleton history appears to have been successful. Councillor Wera Hobhouse, who helped the campaign group raise the issue at Council and with Link4Life, hopes that 2010 will be the year that the tapestries are again on public display.

The hope is that the tapestries will be displayed in the Arena for the next couple of years, before moving into a permanent home in the yet to be built Middleton Joint Service Centre.