'We're celebrating our history' Leeds tapestry unveils powerful freedom panel as city marks 400-year milestone
A vibrant and powerful new chapter in Leeds’ story has been stitched into place to mark what freedom means today.
The much-loved Leeds Tapestry celebrating the city’s history has received an inspiring new panel, completely designed and stitched by residents to explore ideas of freedom.
The project at Leeds Central Library was a culmination of work from lead artist Hayley Mills-Styles and Elnaz Yazdani working with community groups across the city to create a stitch in time inspired by library collections and a specially commissioned poem by poet laureate Simon Armitage called Freedom Road.
The original 16-panel tapestry was created between 1992 and 2002 celebrating Leeds, its people and its rich history.
Each panel has its own theme including sporting life, community spirit and education.
Devised and designed by Leeds artist Kate Peace, the creation of the piece involved over 2,000 people and it's made up of 1,500 individual embroideries, many of them extremely time consuming to create.
She said: “I want to make art that people feel a connection to. And the only way you can do that is by having that connection to the work that you're doing.
“One of the aims I had when we decided to go ahead with this, was that not only would people be involved at every stage, but that to celebrate the textile heritage of Leeds we would attempt to include every single known hand embroidery, machine embroidery, every kind of textile creation, every kind of way to make the textile image that we could.
“There’s thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of work in it.”
The new panel has been added just in time for a year of marking a special milestone for the city.
Throughout 2026 Leeds will be celebrating that it’s been 400 years since it was awarded its first Royal Charter, recognising it as a self-governing borough.
Coun Asghar Khan, Leeds City Council’s executive member for communities, customer service and community safety, said: “The Leeds Tapestry is a wonderful piece that celebrates the history of our city.
“Marking 400 years since the city received its Royal Charter the tapestry has now received a new panel, to explore what freedom means to us in Leeds today, reflecting on the past and the future.
“The artists and volunteers have done a brilliant job in making it all come together and I’d recommend anyone to go and see it at the Leeds Central Library.”