Tapestries

After weeks of study, I think we've finally puzzled out the mysterious Lindley Tapestry. It seems to tell the story of a family moving to a new home. It has opened up a new area of understanding for us by giving us insights in to the lives people of that era. 

 The first panel, which is double-width compared to the rest, shows the family moving all their belongings in a horse-drawn wagon to a new village. It is clear that the family is quite happy about the move. The village is shown to be surrounded by a fence or wall with trees beyond.

 The second panel shows the men cutting down trees, seemingly for use in building their house. It’s clearly hard work, evidenced by sweat on the brows of the men.

The third panel shows the whole family, including women and children, placing the logs to build the house. They seem to be less happy about the work, but it’s likely that it’s simply the nature of the work that’s the reason.

The fourth panel shows the finishing touches being put on the house. The mother and daughters arrange their belongings in the house while the father and sons put the thatch roof on the house. It’s plain to see the excitement on their faces.

The fifth panel shows the interior of the house. It is a single large room with a communal bed, a firepit, table and chairs, and butter churn.

The final panel shows the area outside the house for the animals. It seems that they raised sheep, chickens, pigs, and a horse. While proud of the animals, it seems that one of the sons is less than happy about the slop that is being fed to the pigs.

If you're slightly confused about this, that's ok. Olivia has reached the year 1066 and the Battle of Hastings in her history studies. One of the resources that we looked at was the Bayeux Tapestry which tells the entire story of the events leading to the Battle of Hastings between Henry and William. We looked at every panel of the tapestry here and we challenged Olivia to make her own tapestry telling a story. She did a great job and had a lot of fun with it.