Restoration of 16th-century Derbyshire tapestries ends after 24 years

Set of 13 Gideon tapestries in Hardwick Hall unveiled after painstaking work cleaning and stitching huge pieces

After a 24-year project, the National Trust has finally finished the restoration of a set of 16th-century tapestries at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, the longest such endeavour in its history.

On Thursday, the final tapestry in the set of 13 Gideon tapestries was unveiled on the wall of the long gallery, the culmination of a painstaking effort to clean and handstitch the huge pieces one at a time, at a cost of 1.7m.