Canterbury City Council has called for local residents to be given priority booking for the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum, arguing that the city's historical role in producing the artwork has been overlooked. The council points out that people in Hastings and Rother already receive such an offer because of those areas' links to the tapestry, and says Canterbury deserves the same recognition, since it is widely believed the embroidery was made there by local seamstresses. The request highlights long-standing academic debate over the tapestry's origins and reflects civic pride in a heritage often attributed to the often-overlooked women who created it.

Historians cite Canterbury's St Augustine's Abbey and Christ Church Priory as renowned centres of elite needlework, and Anglo-Saxon spelling in the tapestry's Latin inscriptions as evidence of English, rather than French, craftsmanship. The 68-metre, 11th-century embroidery has returned to England for the first time in nearly 1,000 years, opening at the British Museum on Thursday 10 September 2026 and running until 11 July 2027, while its usual home in Bayeux undergoes refurbishment. The loan has generated huge public demand, with peak tickets over £30 selling out fast, though experts found minor damage—two broken threads and small tears—likely sustained during the tapestry's careful 350-mile journey from France.