Hexham Abbey

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East end of Hexham Abbey

Inside Hexham Abbey

Hexham Abbey is a place of Christian worship in the town of Hexham, Northumberland, in north-east England.

There has been a church on the site for over 1300 years since Etheldreda, Queen of Northumbria made a grant of lands to Wilfrid, Bishop of York c.674. Of Wilfrid's Benedictine abbey, which was constructed almost entirely of material salvaged from nearby Roman ruins, the Saxon crypt and apse still remain.^[1] For a little while around that time it was the seat of a bishopric.

In Norman times, Wilfrid's abbey was replaced by an Augustinian priory. The current church largely dates from that period (c.1170–1250), in the Early English style of architecture. The choir, north and south transepts and the cloisters, where canons studied and meditated, date from this period.

The east end was rebuilt in 1860. The Abbey was largely rebuilt during the incumbency of Canon Edwin Sidney Savage who came to Hexham in 1898 and remained until 1919. This mammoth project involved re-building the nave, whose walls incorporate some of the earlier church and the restoration of the choir. The nave was reconsecrated on August 8, 1908.

In 1996 an additional chapel was created at the east end of the north choir aisle. Named St Wilfrid's Chapel, it offers a place for prayer or quiet reflection.

Since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537, the Abbey has been the parish church of Hexham.