When Ron Nicola had the bright idea of creating a mod- ern-day Bayeaux Tapestry he had no idea of the scale of the task.

The 62-year-old maintenance man from Hastings decided to paint a new version of the tapestry depicting historic scenes from 1066 to the present time to mark the millennium.

For 15 months the amateur artist toiled in his garage creating his masterpiece.

Ron admits he did not expect the project to take 1,000 hours, cost £600 in materials and end up 18ft x 3ft.

He said: "With the year 2000 coming up it felt like a golden opportunity to do something worthwhile to mark the millennium but it got a bit out of hand!"

The painting is being exhibited at Battle Abbey until August 30 but Ron is not sure where it will live after that.

He said: "I can't take it back to our bungalow - it's too big."

Ron is welcoming offers for the painting and can be contacted on 01424 713530.