Meet the man who painstakingly recreated the Bayeux Tapestry on his commute to work (having started in the 1980s)

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 12:32 EDT, 13 September 2026 | Updated: 13:10 EDT, 13 September 2026 Making best use of a long train commute usually involves catching up on emails, reading or admiring the scenery.But one Scot has been especially productive during such a journey – by creating a replica of the Bayeux Tapestry that is now going on display in his native Aberdeenshire at the same time as the real thing enthrals crowds in London.Ian Williams, 70, told the BBC he started the project in the 1980s to keep himself occupied during his two-hour commute from Suffolk to his workplace in London.His cross-stitched replica is 86ft long – more than a third of the 230ft original – and is on a roller at Macduff’s Market Street Hall so visitors can scroll through it.‘It seemed like the biggest tapestry I’d ever heard of and I thought I would be commuting for years and years,’ he said. ‘It is such a relaxing hobby, it is the same movement over and over but you have to think about what colours you are using.’ Ian Williams started the project in the 1980s Section of the Bayeux Tapestry which Ian Williams spent 40 years making The first visitors view the Bayeux Tapestry as it goes on display to the public at the British Museum in LondonIt comes as the original welcomed its first viewers at the British Museum in London last week where it is on show until 2027 after returning to British soil on loan from France.There has been huge demand to see the tapestry, which depicts events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.Mr Williams saw the original in Bayeux when his work in the maritime industry took him to France.