The Sheldon Tapestry Map is one of Warwickshire’s treasures.
It’s the only complete surviving map from a set of four commissioned by Ralph Sheldon in the 1580’s for his newly built house at Weston, near Long Compton, in the south of the county. Parts of the other maps (Oxfordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire) are held by the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
The huge tapestry is a rare and wonderful pictorial representation of Elizabethan Warwickshire, and gives a tantalising glimpse of Shakespeare’s county at a time when map-making was in its infancy.
Maggie’s talk explores the Elizabethan landscape as depicted on the tapestry, as well as the story of how it was created and what‘s happened to it more recently – from its travels to Belgium, Bristol and the British Museum in London, before coming safely home to the Warwickshire Museum.
Whatever your interest – maps, textiles, tapestry conservation, Shakespeare, the Elizabethan landscape…. this subject has something for everyone!
Maggie Wood has a degree in history, and a postgraduate degree in museum studies. For much of her working life she was a museum curator, including being Curator of Social History for the Warwickshire Museum Service. The Sheldon tapestry map was one of the many objects in her care – and was certainly the biggest!