Interesting article just brought to my attention — Needlework stitched nearly 1,000 years ago is brought back to life:

Extremely rare fragments of Anglo Saxon embroidery from Worcester, nearly 1,000 years old and hidden away for decades, are currently being painstakingly restored and conserved by specialists.

… Tantalising too, is the real possibility that they may have been part of vestments which belonged to St Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester from 1062 until 1095. The 1,000th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated this year.

The fragments were discovered in a stone coffin in 1870 during building work in the Lady Chapel of Worcester Cathedral and are thought to have been concealed there by monks who venerated St Wulfstan and feared the embroidery pieces might be destroyed at the time of Henry VIII’s Reformation of the monasteries in 1540 …

The now treasured Anglo Saxon embroidery pieces come from a bishop’s vestments and include a stole (scarf), a maniple (a strip of material which hung from the left arm, derived from a napkin), and four wedge-shaped panels.

It would seem that most embroidery of this date was done in noble households, for who else could afford the silks from the Orient and the gold and silver thread? For example, Queen Margaret of Scotland, who died in 1093, was noted for her production of church vestments.

There were probably workshops at convents and priories, but none seem to be recorded at this time. St Dunstan (924-988), Bishop of Worcester and later Archbishop of Canterbury, was a famous designer of vestments …

The exquisite stole originally consisted of strips which totalled approximately 7ft 6 ins in length, with panels each containing a standing figure about six ins high with a halo behind his head. The figures are of apostles whose names are embroidered in gold above their heads.