Rollright Stones depicted on an Elizabethan tapestry Thursday,
30th August, 2012 Ancient stones revealed on tapestry The
cleaning of an Elizabethan tapestry map has revealed what may be
the earliest depiction of the Rollright Stones, a series of
Neolithic and Bronze Age megaliths in the English Midlands, says
Maggie Wood, the keeper of social history at Warwickshire
Museum. What appears to be a small stone circle is now visible
in the lower right-hand corner of the Sheldon Tapestry Map of
Warwickshire. Other details, including tiny cottages nestled
among the trees, are also now visible. The textile was cleaned
and conserved in 2011 in preparation for its inclusion in the
British Museum’s exhibition “Shakespeare: Staging the World”
(until 25 November). The tapestry, along with four other textile
maps (one of which is in the collection of the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London), was commissioned in the late 1580s by
Ralph Sheldon for his stately home in Long Compton, near the
stones. The textile was bought in