Hexham, an ancient town of Northumberland, beautifully situated on the right bank of the Tyne, 24 miles W. of Newcastle by rail. A stone bridge of nine arches spans the river, and the town is intersected from east to west by one long street, called in its different parts by the names of Priestpopple, Battle-hill, and Hencotes. Two narrow streets connect with the market-place, one of the most interesting and picturesque in England, from which again other narrow streets diverge irregularly. The great point of interest is the Abbey Church of St Andrew, a noble monument of 13th-century architecture, of which the greater part of the choir, except the eastern chapels, and both the transepts alone remain, the building having been subjected to shameful restoration in 1858, and again in 1869. The monastery was originally founded by St Wilfrid in 674, and his church was long celebrated by the chroniclers as the finest on this side the Alps. Here in 681 a bishopric was established which lasted till 821, when Tidferth, the last bishop, died on a voyage to Rome, having been driven off by the Danes. The ruined church was rebuilt in 1112, and a priory of Austin canons founded, but the monastery was suppressed under Henry VIII., and its last prior hanged at Tyburn for taking part in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The nave of the church was destroyed by the Scots in 1296, and was never rebuilt. Under its ruins was discovered the Saxon crypt of St Wilfrid, a wonderful survival of our earliest architecture, with strange barrel vaults, lamp niches, and funnel-shaped apertures, only to be matched at Ripon. It has been discovered that it was built of Roman stones, most likely carried from the old Roman station of Corstopitum, but 3½ miles distant. The central tower is 100 feet high, and of its eight ancient bells one is still called the 'Fray Bell,' from having been rung to give warning in Border alarms. The stone Frith-stool is supposed to have been Wilfrid's chair. The best remains of the monastery are the refectory and the abbey gateway of Norman architecture. To the west of the churchyard is the Seal, once the park of the monks, now a public promenade. Near Hexham the Lancastrians were severely defeated, May 15, 1464. The chief manufactures of the town are gloves and hats. Pop. (1871) 5331; (1881) 5919; (1891) 5945.
See Wright's History of Hexham (1823); The Priory of Hexham, its Chroniclers, Endowments, and Annals, edited for the Surtees Society by James Raine (1864-65); Hewitt's Handbook to Hexham and its Antiquities (1879); and especially the admirable and sumptuous work by Charles Clement Hodges, The Abbey of St Andrew, Hexham (privately printed, 1888).