‘Of course we will give it back’: Bayeux tapestry set for secret journey across Channel

Operation will use specially built container to protect fragile 11th-century embroidery

As the Bayeux tapestry wends its way across the Channel in a top secret operation there will be no jolts, no bumps, no shakes or vibrations - unlike the voyage of William the Conqueror whose 1066 victory at Hastings the artefact recounts.

Nothing has been left to chance," Catherine Pegard, the French minister of culture, told a gathering to mark the historic loan, which will be physically achieved with the tapestry, which is really an embroidery, transported in a specially constructed cradle within a container, the minister said.