Tapestry conservation - St Mary's Guildhall - Video and audio transcripts

Cllr O’Boyle: “So here I am. I’m in Coventry’s great St Mary's guildhall. Part of the work that's going on in this great place is to improve it for the people of Coventry and visitors from all over Britain and all over the world. I’m here with Wendy Toulson, she's a textile conservator and you're working on this fantastic tapestry. Tell me about it, Wendy

Wendy Toulson: “Well this tapestry which clearly was specially woven for this space in the guild hall probably around the turn of the 16th century. It's in fairly good condition because it was comprehensively conserved at the textile conservation centre in Hampton Court Palace in the late 70s, early 80s. I’m here today really to look at the way in which it's displayed and to see if there are improvements that can be made to display case so that people can see this amazing jewel more clearly, possibly modifying the glass possibly modifying the way in which the tapestry is fixed into the back of the display case so that people have an even better chance to see it.

Cllr O’Boyle: “Wendy thank you very much this over 500 years old this tapestry is, it needs to be pride of place in this fantastic space and over the next few months so there's a lot of work that's going to go on and this is going to take pride in place. Now works going to take place, we're going to have a fantastic medieval kitchen opened up, this place is going to be somewhere we can be proud of. It's no longer Coventry’s best kept secret this will be a place where people from all over the country, all over the world know about. So, let's look forward to that and let's get the work done thank you.”