D-Day 80th anniversary commemorated as The Longest Yarn comes to Tewkesbury Abbey.

The Longest Yarn is an 80m 3D depiction of that fateful day, 6th June 1944, in wool art

With 80 displays, each measuring one metre in length, depicting scenes of the world’s largest amphibious invasion, The Longest Yarn is something quite unique and not to be missed. The scenes include the build-up to D-Day in England, the horrors on the Landing Beaches and the bloody inland battles.

There is no charge for entry but donations are invited. Suggested donation £5 per person. Tickets are not needed. Please check below for occasional times where the exhibition will be closed to visitors.

Created with guidance from professional historians to be accurate, each scene has been selected by the creator to depict the story of this momentous day in history. Some of the scenes depict actual WW2 veterans that were in the theatre of war in Normandy on 6th June plus the lesser-known events in local towns and villages in Normandy.

180 knitters from across the world, including the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and even people with NATO stationed in Europe, have joined in to help make this project happen.

Tansy Foster, who came up with the idea and has lead the operations from France said:

“One of my favourite scenes that will be on display is the depiction of the famous moment Lord Lovat and Piper Bill Millin crossed Pegasus Bridge, and another is when he plays his pipes on Sword Beach. Piper Millin’s son donated his father’s favourite jumper to us which we unravelled (frogged) and used the wool to knit the figures of Piper Bill – it’s given a real poignancy to these scenes.”

An accompanying book will be on sale, giving more information on each of the 80 scenes, including a picture from 1944 to show viewers what each scene was based on.

We expect this to be extremely popular and so to help us manage numbers, if you are bringing a party of more than 10 people, please could you let us know in advance by emailing [email protected] Thank you

We are extremely grateful to Big G Logistics who have kindly agreed to collect the exhibition from France and bring it over at a discounted rate, and also to Brittany Ferries who have waived their transport costs.

Saturday 7 December – Thursday 9 January, 9.30am – 3.45pm

The exhibition will be on display from 9.30am – 3.45pm ( 9.30am – 1pm, on Monday 9 December and Tuesday 10 December), (1 – 3.45pm on Tuesday 17 December) every day except where stipulated below.

Closure notices:

Sunday 8 December

Sunday 15 December

Sunday 22 December

Tuesday 24 December

Wednesday 25 December

Sunday 29 December

Sunday 5 January

Other dates to note:
We have concert rehearsals and stage building on the following dates: Wednesday 11 December, Friday 13 December and Monday 16 December. The exhibition will remain fully open but please expect some noise.