BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833).Pic: PeterWillows/BNPS..A Normans Conquest.....Norman nut Andy Wilkinson has spent an astonishing 18 year's sewing a 40ft long copy of the Bayeux Tapestry...Despite not having picked up a needle and thread before, Andy, a member of a historical reenactment group, started the project as a way of decorating his Norman tent during long wet weekends at festivals...But the increasingly large strip of embroidery soon outgrew Andy's tent, and the engineer from Chatham is now hoping the Battle Abbey museum near Hastings will display his amazing work...Andy, 51, has spent more than 10,000 hours sewing the tapestry, that is now longer than a tennis court and is just under a foot high...It is a 2:1 scale version of the actual embroidery that is exhibited in the Normandy town of Bayeux.