HEXHAM, a market-town of England, county of Northumberland, is situated on the south bank of the river Tyne, crossed there by a handsome stone bridge of nine arches, 20 miles west from Newcastle and 36 east from Carlisle, and on the line of railway connecting those towns. It is somewhat irregularly built, and consists chi efly of several narrow streets diverging from the market-place, a spacious square. Its defects in architecture and arrangement are, however, compensated for by its pleasant situation and the imposing remains of the old priory church. This church, begun by Wilfrid in 674, and completed by .Acca, his successor, remained uninjured till 875, when every part of the monastery but the stone work was destroyed by the Danes. It was built of stones used in an earlier work, and many of them bear Roman inscriptions. Originally in dimensions and splendour it was unsurpassed on this side of the Alps, and doubtless had no small influence on ecclesiastical architecture in various parts of England. The building as renovated in the 12th century consisted of nave and transepts, choir and aisles, and a massive central tower; but the nave was burned by the Scots in 1296, and has never been rebuilt. The style is Early English with Transition details. The crypt, discovered in 1726, is a fine example of Saxon architecture, of which there appear also to be some traces in the choir. Among the interesting old monuments which have been collected in the transept is a sculptured stone slab of Oswulf, king of Northumbria, of the date 788. To the west of the church there are still some remains of the conventual buildings. Near the market-place there are two old castellated towers. A vessel containing about 8000 Saxon coins was discovered in the churchyard in 1832. The “Seal,” ...formerly the park of the monks, is now used as a promenade, and from an eminence within its bounds a fine view is obtained. Hexham possesses a new town-hall and corn exchange, erected in 1866 in the Italian style, and a large board school. A hydropathic establishment has recently been opened. Leather gloves are the principal manufacture of the town; and it has tanneries, wool-staplers’ yards, a brewery, and an iron and brass foundry. In the neighbourhood there are extensive market gardens and nurseries. The population of the township in 1871 was 5331, and of the parish 6437.
Hexham is supposed by some to have been the Axelodunum of the Romans, but although in all probability it was a Roman station, the similarity in the names is too slight to establish the identity. By the Saxons it was called Hextoldesham and Halgulstad from two of the neighbouring streams. Wilfrid, who founded the monastery and church in 673, received from Queen Etheldreda a grant of the town and a large surrounding tract of country. In 681 the southern portion of Bernicia was formed into the diocese of Hexham, which comprised the county of Durham and the greater part of Northumberland. In 821 Hexham was united to the diocese of Lindisfarne, after which it formed part of Durham, then of York until 1837, when it was restored to Durham. In 875 the town was plundered by the Danes and the monastery destroyed. In 1138 the monastery was plundered by the Scots, and in 1296 they again attacked the town and destroyed the nave of the conventual church. In the reign of Henry VIII. the last prior of Hexham was in 1536 hanged at the gate of the monastery for being concerned in the insurrection called the Pilgrimage of Grace.
See the old History of the Church of Hexham by Prior Richard; Roman Hexham and Hexham Church in Archaeologia Aeliana, new series, vol. v.; 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, A Handbook to Hexham and its Antiquities, Hexham, 1879.
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