Town in Northumberland, England
Hexham
Hexham's abbey crypt is built from Roman stones, its jail may be England's oldest, and two small stone heads once set off a werewolf scare.
Key information
- County
- Northumberland
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 12,000 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Hexham Abbey, the Old Gaol, jump racing and the Tyne valley
- What locals are called
- Hexhamites
- Famous people
- St Wilfrid, Acca of Hexham, St Etheldreda
About Hexham
A crypt built from a Roman soldier's leftovers
Walk down into the crypt beneath Hexham Abbey and you are standing in one of the oldest surviving church spaces in England. Wilfrid, the stormy Northumbrian bishop, began it in 674. The land was a gift from Queen Etheldreda, and the builders had a handy quarry: the abandoned Roman town at Corbridge, a few miles down the Tyne. The stones still carry Roman lettering and carving. Upstairs in the abbey is the tombstone of Flavinus, a standard-bearer of a Roman cavalry regiment, showing him on horseback riding down a cowering enemy. It is one of the best Roman tombstones in the north. Wilfrid's church was said to be the finest north of the Alps. The Danes wrecked the place in the 870s, and the abbey you see today is mostly medieval, built by Augustinian canons from the 1100s.
The chair that could save your life
Inside the abbey sits the Frith Stool, a plain stone chair that tradition links to Wilfrid's time. Anyone who sat in it claimed sanctuary, and the abbey's protection followed. Break that peace and you faced serious trouble. The abbey also keeps the Night Stair, a worn flight of stone steps that once let monks drop straight from their dormitory into the church for services in the small hours. It is among the best of its kind in the country. Acta of Hexham fame came later. Acca, bishop here from around 709, filled the abbey with books and relics, and made Hexham a centre of learning.
The jail that started a trend
A short stroll from the abbey, the Old Gaol dates from the early 1330s. It is widely described as the first purpose-built prison in England. William Melton, Archbishop of York, commissioned the fortified prison tower, which was built between 1330 and 1333. The Archbishops of York held Hexham and its surrounding lands for centuries. It is a fitting building for a border town. For much of the Middle Ages, Hexham sat in raiding country, with Scottish armies and local reivers a regular worry. The nearby Moot Hall, a fortified gatehouse from around 1400, tells the same story. The Wars of the Roses reached the town too. In May 1464 the Battle of Hexham, fought on the Hexham Levels nearby, ended Lancastrian hopes in the north.
The day soldiers fired on the Market Place
On 9 March 1761 Hexham saw one of the bloodiest days in its history. Local people, furious about a new ballot to force men into the Northumberland Militia, gathered in the town in their thousands. Soldiers opened fire in the Market Place, and dozens of protesters died. The Hexham Riot, as it became known, is still remembered as a rare case of the English countryside rising against conscription. Today the Market Place is a gentler spot, with market stalls, the abbey grounds behind and the hills of the Tyne valley beyond.
Two stone heads and a werewolf rumour
In 1971 two boys digging in a Hexham garden found a pair of small, crude carved stone heads. Soon afterwards, strange happenings were reported in the family's house, including, in the tale that spread, a half-human creature. Celtic scholar Dr Anne Ross examined the heads and later reported her own uncanny experience. The Hexham Heads became one of the great paranormal stories of 1970s Britain, and still crop up in books on the supernatural. Nobody has settled where they actually came from, which is half the fun.
Racing, lamb and market-town life
Hexham is a proper market town, and the livestock mart still draws farmers from across the Tyne valley and the Pennine fringe. Northumbrian lamb and beef are staples on local menus, alongside pan haggerty, the layered potato, onion and cheese dish of the north-east. On the hill above the town, Hexham Racecourse stages National Hunt racing, with long views over the valley. The town also hosts the Hexham Book Festival and regular events in the abbey. As a base, Hexham works well. Hadrian's Wall, Housesteads and Northumberland's big skies are all within easy reach, and Newcastle is a short train ride east along the Tyne.