The Bayeux Tapestry arrived at the British Museum at night

To ensure it travels safely – and unscathed – the folding stand, which has been preserved on the tape since it was taken down from the scene in Bayeux last year, has been enclosed in a temperature and humidity controlled box. Then that box went outside. At this time, steel springs served as shock absorbers to protect against bumps in the road.

The work crossed the Channel on the Eurotunnel before heading into central London overnight.

Cullinan told me: “If anyone on the other side, especially on the French side, said, ‘I think it’s too dangerous to do this,’ it wouldn’t have happened now. That’s the truth. The museum would never do anything that would interfere with the objects in its care.”

No harm is a “goal”, he added. “That’s what we’ve been trying to achieve and we feel very confident about it. And to say that the weakest things always travel. We’re going to lend the weaker things.”

Previously, two practice trips were made with a textile copy to test the road and the box. The point was to measure the vibration and reduce any large impact or shock.

Peter Ricketts, special envoy for UK tape lending, said “everything possible” had been done to prevent damage.

“Nobody wants to bring the tapes to England if they think there’s any harm or danger to something this unusual. I’m not worried, I’m relieved. They seem to be doing very well with the careful arrangements for the transport.”

“It’s very special that two existing governments have come together to look at their shared history,” he said of the loan.

The Bayeux Tapestry is not actually a tapestry film: it has embroidered images depicting the conflict between William, Duke of Normandy and then Conqueror of England, and Harold II, King of England, between colored wool threads.

Embroidery of great importance – 58 scenes, 626 characters (but only six women), 202 horses – ships, swords and bows (including a soldier believed to be Harold II – although there are questions about whether this was added later).

Horton-Insch says it’s a “miracle” that the artwork has survived for 1,000 years. “Moths, mice, damp, mold, they can burn a lot of things,” they could have ruined it.

“It’s just an unusual survival.”

“It tells the story of one of the most important periods in English history, the history of Britain, in an amazing way that cannot be captured by written sources.”

The Bayeux Tapestry is a wonderful depiction of the end of Anglo-Saxon England.

The Norman Conquest completely reshaped the country and changed everything. English lands were given to Norman nobles. The Normans built hundreds of castles that asserted control and projected their royal power.

English earls were replaced by Normans, as well as high church officials.

And thousands of French words that we still use entered the English language – from law, parliament and justice to mutton, beef and pork.

The tapestry depicts medieval history in Normandy and England like no other. It provides precious details about civil and military architecture, armor and seafaring in Viking culture as well as everyday life.

Before 1066, the country’s cultural and political ties were with Scandinavia and the North Sea. After the Norman Conquest, it became part of the Norman Empire stretching across the English Channel. It is sometimes said to be the beginning of England’s involvement in continental European politics.

The excitement was evident when the British Museum sold 100,000 tickets on its first day of sale. The work appears flat – the loan criteria. The mezzanine allows visitors to see the work in its entirety as they enter the gallery – for the first time in history.

But before that, weeks of intense job testing.