- Hexham Abbey
Parish church
name=Hexham Abbey
caption=East end of Hexham Abbey.
dedication=
denomination=Church of England
tradition=Broad Church
parish=Hexham
diocese=Newcastle
province=York
rector=Canon Graham Usher
vicar=
vicar1=
curate=Revd. Helen Barton
organistdom=Michael Haynes
organist1=Hugh Morris
website= [http://www.hexhamabbey.org.uk/ www.hexhamabbey.org.uk]Hexham Abbey is a place of
Christian worship in the town ofHexham ,Northumberland , in north-eastEngland .There has been a church on the site for over 1300 years since
Etheldreda , Queen of Northumbria made a grant of lands toWilfrid , Bishop of York c.674. Of Wilfrid'sBenedictine abbey, which was constructed almost entirely of material salvaged from nearby Roman ruins, the Saxon crypt and apse still remain.cite web|url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/BA/ba60/feat2.shtml |publisher=British Archaeology|title=Old ruins, new world] 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 theEarly English style ofarchitecture . 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 onAugust 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.References
External links
* [http://www.hexhamabbey.org.uk/ Hexham Abbey official web site]
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