Hexham Abbey

Hexham Abbey stands in the market town of Hexham, Northumberland, on ground where a church has stood for more than thirteen centuries. The present building began as a Benedictine abbey founded by Saint Wilfrid in AD 674, using stones taken from nearby Roman ruins. After Viking raids in the ninth century left the church in ruins, it was rebuilt and later became an Augustinian priory in 1113. The nave and choir were restored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries under Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, who also rebuilt the nave walls using older stonework. The Abbey is worth visiting for its Saxon crypt, one of the few surviving parts of Wilfrid’s original church, and for the Roman inscription slab in the crypt that mentions Emperor Septimius Severus. The stained glass windows by Henry Thomas Bosdet date from about 1907 to 1918, and the tombstone of Flavinus, a Roman cavalry officer, lies in the cloister. A permanent exhibition in the former monastic buildings tells the Abbey’s long history from its beginnings to the present day. Visitors find a Grade I listed church with Early English architecture in the choir and transepts, a restored nave, and a quiet chapel added in 1996. The Saxon crypt has four chambers with barrel-vaulted ceilings and Roman stones carved with inscriptions. The cloisters, once used by canons for study and prayer, lead to the exhibition space. Outside, the town of Hexham surrounds the Abbey with its market square and historic lanes.