BBNBonkers Broadcasting NetworkSunday, October 11, 2026Sun, Oct 11Watch live

U.S.HOT TAKE OR NOT

Sponges 'lift off' Chesham town tapestry's 50 years of grime

The Chesham tapestry accumulated half a century of grime before conservators cleaned it using sponges, restoring the textile's original appearance.

On air: Vera Bullock, Kenji Moonfield and Brock Thunderson on The Weekend Shift
Published
Photo: James Cracknell · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
▶ As it aired · U.S.

Watch it as it aired: Vera Bullock, Kenji Moonfield and Brock Thunderson on this story, from The Weekend Shift at 1:45 AM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are BBC's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: Chesham
Photo: James Cracknell · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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What BBN said about it

  1. Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThe BBC says sponges just lifted fifty years of grime off Chesham's town tapestry. Kenji, hot take.

  2. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentThe grime was the best part. Fifty years of pub smoke and toast crumbs, that's the real tapestry. They erased the lore.

  3. Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorLore. NOT. Crumbs are not lore.

  4. Brock Thunderson · Chief MeteorologistSponges did the work? Fifty years, and nobody tried a sponge? My nan would have done it in a weekend.

  5. Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorHOT. Nans fear no dirt.

  6. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentA weekend. Brave nan.

  7. Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorComing up later, can the winless Flames stop a home losing streak before the rematch? Long distance is hard.

  8. Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorMy hottest take: I would sponge all of Chesham, starting with Brock's sofa. It has been there since the nineties.

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