In early September one of the library treasures, the Oxfordshire Sheldon tapestry, will be taken off display. One of a set of four there’s been a Sheldon tapestry on display in Blackwell Hall for the last ten years, a riot of colour and history which has drawn visitors to them and will be missed when no longer there.

The first tapestry on display, of Worcestershire, in Blackwell Hall. The Oxfordshire tapestry is currently on display in this space

Ralph Sheldon, a Warwickshire landowner, commissioned four tapestry maps centred on the counties of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire and the map information was largely derived from the county maps of Christopher Saxton, first published in 1579. Two of the tapestries came to the Bodleian as part of the rich collection of prints, drawings, maps and other resources left to the library by the antiquarian Richard Gough in 1809, while the third, of Gloucestershire, was bought in 2007. The fourth tapestry, centred on Warwickshire, is in Warwickshire Museum in Warwick. It’s the only complete tapestry but has lost the wonderfully illustrated border that features on the Bodleian copies, which are richly decorated with classical images, maps and views.

Made from a mix of wool and silk the tapestries are both marvellous in their own right but are also important cartographic records, made at a time when England was beginning to be mapped properly for the first time. Each one would have originally measured approximately 15 by 20 feet and each has a ‘featured’ county at its centre, bordered in red. Rivers and settlements feature prominently as do scenes of local interest such as the Rollright Stones, a prehistoric stone circle in north Oxfordshire, or a brief bit of text on the Worcestershire tapestry telling of a land slip. Important houses are shown though none as big as Sheldon’s, Weston House, which appears on all four tapestries, the very centre of the area the tapestries show. And what an area, when put together as a set of maps the range goes from as far north as the suburbs of Birmingham down past a beautiful, though comically inaccurate, White Horse at Uffington and from the Welsh border across to the Tower of London the whole of central England is depicted in glorious detail.

Villages and towns are shown with houses, buildings and churches, many still recognizable today. No other map existed at the time showing the country in such detail, in such vivid colour, and no tapestries exist in this country from the Tudor period with a cartographic design on such a scale. Ralph Sheldon created a set of tapestries that not only kept his house decorated and warm but also showed off both his wealth and connections. With items as expensive to make such as these this was bling on a grand scale.

Before the tapestries were displayed, all three went to the National Trust’s textile conservation studio on the Blickling Estate in Norfolk, and from there preparation was made for cleaning, which would take place in one of the few places with facilities to clean tapestries of this size, the De Wit Royal Manufacturers in Mechelen, Belgium. Cleaning involved steaming and then rinsing the tapestries before drying out on large racks (to see this process in action see Conservation of our Sheldon tapestries | Bodleian Map Room Blog). Once cleaned the tapestries returned to the National Trust, where skilled conservators strengthened the stitching and sewed the pieces of the tapestries onto backing. The tapestries came back to us not only stronger and now secure the colours, faded before, are vibrant and it’s remarkable to think that these reds, yellows and greens have survived without too much fading for so long.  None of our tapestries are complete, all have various amounts of parts missing. Some we know were removed and given to others long before the tapestries were bought by Gough, the bottom right part of the Oxfordshire tapestry can be seen on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum for example, while insect damage has done for the remaining gaps.

The Oxfordshire tapestry, (R) Gough Maps 261, with the many gaps caused by insect and human interference

The tapestries remained in the Sheldon family until 1781, displayed, then stored, and in some cases copied for a later version. It’s a later version of our Oxfordshire tapestry which is on display in the Ashmolean Museum, a poor copy with faded colours and heavy weaving. Come in to see our original in its full glory before it’s too late.

Am interactive guide to the Oxfordshire tapestry can be found here The Sheldon Tapestry map of Oxfordshire