IT WILL be more than seven times the size of the Bayeux Tapestry and woven by about 50,000 children.

Yesterday youngsters got a first glimpse of how their handiwork is helping create a unique tapestry charting the life of the River Thames.

When finished, The Thames Heritage Tapestry will be three-and-a-half times longer than its French cousin, having been knitted, woven and stitched by 240 school pupils along the river’s length.

Pupils from 11 Oxfordshire schools, which have each created a metre-square panel of a section of the river, were among the first people to get a glimpse of the artwork as it went on display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

It is on show until January 11, before embarking on a tour along the Thames, growing in length at every stop as new panels are added.

The one-metre-high tapestry will be on show in London during the Olympic Games, and the group behind the project is hunting for a permanent home.

Sophie Edmonds-Seal, 11, from New Hinksey Primary School, South Oxford, said: “It is amazing to see it all here today, and it is good to see our piece in place.

“It was tricky – we started at the river and worked our way up to the sky.”

Each group of children visited a stretch of the Thames, to draw and photograph scenes for their final design.

Ashmolean director Dr Christopher Brown, picked Charlton-on-Otmoor CofE Primary School’s panel – showing Port Meadow and Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit – as his favourite.

Pupil Elia Franklin, nine, said: “We went to Port Meadow and took pictures and then started knitting, plaiting and sewing bits together. My favourite is the rabbit.”

And six-year-old Nina Gardiner, from Longcot and Fernham CofE Primary School, said: “I really want to go to London and see it when it is all complete.”

Lizzie Owen, from the Millennium Tapestry Company which has coordinated the project, said: “We came up with the idea in 2009. But even schools reading about this now can still take part.

“We ran tapestry projects in the past and found embroidery is something that children can work and excel at, including children at special needs schools who can take part on a level playing field.”