Stitchers in the tiny Channel Island of Alderney have completed the missing final piece of the famed Bayeux Tapestry.

The embroidery, which tells the story of the final days of King Harold's encounter with William the Conqueror, has until now left out the coronation of William.

Instead, the final scenes showed the death of the Anglo-Saxon King, Harold Godwinson, following his army’s defeat at Hastings.

Stitchers in the tiny Channel Island of Alderney have completed the missing final piece of the famed Bayeux Tapestry. Alderney’s tapestry was masterminded by 72-year-old Kate Russell (left) who dreamt up the project. It will be on display at Bayeux in Normandy from 1 July until 31 August

But a team of embroiderers on Alderney, a small island just off the coast of William’s native Normandy, have spent a year finishing the job.

According to a report by Ben Chapple in the BBC, they made an effort to choose the right fabrics, colours and similar types of wool to the medieval original.

The new tapestry is the same height as the original and 10ft (3m) long, with four panels showing events following the Battle of Hastings and ending in William’s coronation.

The first of four scenes shows William and his half-brothers dining on the battlefield at Hastings. The bodies of the slain lie scattered about where they have fallen. The caption reads 'Here Duke William dines'

The original tapestry (pictured) ends with the Anglo-Saxons leaving the battlefield. The new ending features William's coronation in Westminster Abbey

This scene depicts early December in 1066. William has crossed the Thames at Wallingford and has reached Berkhamstead where the nobles submit to his rule. The caption reads, 'Here the nobles of London surrender'

THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY The first written record of the Bayeux Tapestry is in 1476. It was described in the cathedral at Bayeux as 'a very long and narrow hanging on which are embroidered figures and inscriptions comprising a representation of the conquest of England.' The Bayeux Tapestry is thought to have been commissioned in the 1070s by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror. It is over 230 feet (70 metres) and tells the story of the final days of King Harold's encounter with William the Conqueror. The tapestry consists of some fifty scenes with captions embroidered on linen with coloured woollen yarns. Since it was 'rediscovered' by scholars in the 18th Century, its final scene - thought to show the coronation of William - has been missing. According to legend, French revolutionary soldiers took it from the cathedral intending to cut it up to use as wagon covers. Advertisement

The Latin text reads: ‘Here Duke William ate. Here the nobles of London gathered. Here William was given the royal crown. And here the Englishmen proclaimed the King.’

An Old English phrase from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1066 is also included. It translates to: ‘The end will be good, as God wills.’

The final design is now on display next to the original at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy.

Fran Harvey, one of the Alderney stitchers told the BBC: ‘It becomes like a drug. I’d tell my husband I’m just going to pop to the library for half an hour and return two and a half hours later.’

Experts had previously pointed out that the opening of the tapestry has a figure of King Edward the Confessor enthroned.

Around the middle point of the tapestry there is an image of William’s enemy Harold enthroned.

‘It would be a neat symmetry and make perfect sense of the story if the end of the tapestry had showed the victorious William enthroned, which is what the Alderney team have chosen to do,’ said Professor Robert Bartlett from the University of St Andrews.

William's worried look as he is crowned may be due to the shout of acclamation, which was thought to be a cry of rebellion. The caption reads: 'Here they gave the crown of the kingdom to William’, and ‘And here the English acclaim the king’

The final panel depicts Christmas Day in 1066 when Duke William of Normandy was acclaimed king of England. The caption, between the turrets of the Tower is in old English and reads: 'The end will be good, as God wills'

The stitching was done on Alderney, a small island just off the coast of William's native Normandy

There are some Channel Island references that would indicate that the final panel could never have been part of the original work.

This is the inclusion in the upper border of Scene Two depicting Wace, the author of the Roman de Rou, which tells the history of the Normans from the settlement of Normandy through to the reign of Henry II.

Wace states that William sailed to England with 696 ships. He says, ‘but I have heard my father say—I remember it well, although I was but a lad- that there were seven hundred ships, less four, when they sailed from St. Valery’.

This might just have been possible, but Wace was writing in the 1160s, and the tapestry, it is believed, was created within 20 years of the Battle of Hastings. His inclusion in this work is because he was born in Jersey.

Alderney’s tapestry was masterminded by 72-year-old Kate Russell who dreamt up the project. It will be on display at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy, France until 31 August.

Among the details in the borders are animals representing the Channel Islands such as a donkey for Guernsey

The new tapestry is the same height as the original and 10ft (3m) long, with four panels showing events following the Battle of Hastings, ending in William’s coronation