The Battle of Hastings - Bayeux Tapestry arrives in UK for the first time in 1,000 years

It arrived at the British Museum overnight following its journey from France. The museum said it had worked over the past year with the government, French partners and a specialised transport company to ensure its safe arrival.

A British Museum spokesperson said: "Overnight the Metropolitan Police Service and Kent Police transported the 11th-century embroidery safely from Folkestone to London in one of the most significant international museum loans ever undertaken between the two countries.

"The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition opens to the public on 10 September. Over the coming weeks the tapestry will undergo condition checks before being carefully installed within a custom showcase case ahead of the exhibition opening."

They added: "Demand to see the once-in-a-generation exhibition has already been unprecedented. When general admission tickets went on sale last week, the museum recorded the single biggest day of ticket sales in its history, generating more than £2.4 million in sales in the first 24 hours."

The museum's website also received almost five times its average daily traffic as hundreds of thousands of people attempted to get tickets.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE, director of the British Museum, said: "This has been a monumental effort from colleagues at the British Museum and our partners in the UK and France. Watching the tapestry arrive at the museum is a moment I will never forget and I look forward to seeing the exhibition take shape over the coming weeks and welcoming the first visitors through our doors this September."

Schools in 1066 Country are receiving priority booking for free tickets to see the Bayeux Tapestry. Hastings MP Helena Dollimore, said: “Although in Hastings we have often been at the centre of historical events, we have not always felt the benefits. The Bayeux Tapestry's return to our shores for the first time in almost a thousand years will be the exhibition of a generation, and I pay tribute to all involved on both sides of the Channel.

"I have been working hard with the British Museum and the Government to ensure that our area, and our school children are truly part of this national moment and I'm delighted that children from 1066 country will now receive free priority tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum. And the loan of the Stothart Cast to the Hastings Museum also marks an important collaboration, as well as the Hastings Embroidery going back on show. We want to encourage those who visit the Tapestry in London to come down to the South Coast and see where the action took place, and enjoy our excellent hospitality when they do. We promise visitors will get a warmer welcome than those in 1066!”

The Bayeux Tapestry is nearly 70 metres (230 feet) long and depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 by William, Duke of Normandy, challenging Harold II, King of England.

This culminated in the Battle of Hastings. The tapestry is thought to date to the 11th century and believed to have been made in England as a gift for William.

It tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans. For centuries its has been kept in Normandy.