The mystery of why the Bayeux Tapestry is so long and thin has finally been solved, after a British professor discovered it fits perfectly in a lost area of Bayeux cathedral.

Christopher Norton, Professor of Art History at the University of York, found the embroidered cloth was designed to be hung along the north, south and west sides of the nave of Bayeux Cathedral, between the west wall and choir screen.

It has long been known that the artwork, depicting the Norman conquest, was hung in the cathedral in the fifteenth century, but new analysis of the linen strips on which it is embroidered suggests that it was intended to hang there from the moment it was made in the eleventh century.

The shape of the tapestry has often puzzled historians as it is 231ft long but just 20 inches tall.

“It has always been the case that the simplest explanation is that it was designed for Bayeux Cathedral," said Prof Norton.

“This general proposition can now be corroborated by the specific evidence that the physical and narrative structure of the tapestry are perfectly adapted to fit the (liturgical) nave of the 11th-century cathedral.”