A History Of St. Andrew's Church, Hexham
After the Synod of Whitby in 664 Wilfrid was top man in the northern church. Latin had replaced Celtic Christianity and Queen Etheldrid granted Wilfred extensive lands in Hexham-shire. It was here that Wilfrid decided to build his church.
The new church was built in the style of the continental basilican churches in the Roman style. On Wilfrid's death in 709 he was succeeded as bishop of Hexham by his friend Acca who, according to Bede "enriched the structure of the church with manifold adornments and marvellous workmanship". Acca raised the church at Hexham to a height of importance it never before or afterwards attained.
In 875 Halfdene the Dane ravaged the whole of Tyneside and Hexham church was plundered and burnt to the ground. For the next two centuries the history of Hexham is obscure. The local priests started marrying and having families which meant the church properties became items handed down as part of their inheritances. About 1050 one Eilaf was put in charge of Hexham, although as treasurer of Durham he probably never came there. After a quarrel with the bishop of Durham over the question of married priests he handed over the lands of Hexham to the Archbishop of York and for many years afterwards Hexham-shire belonged to York and not to Durham.
Eilaf was told to rebuild the church at Hexham which by now was totally in ruins. His son Eilaf the second finished the building in the Norman fashion. There has been much debate over the shape and size of the Saxon church at Hexham but all that has survived is the crypt and the Apse of Wilfrid's church which was discovered under the present choir.
The crypt is an unadorned structure comprised of four chambers. Here were exhibited the relics which were a feature of Wilfrid's church. It consists of a chapel with an ante-chapel at the west end, two side passages with enlarged vestibules at the west and three stairways. Both the chapel and the ante-chapel are barrel-vaulted. In the chapel are three lamp niches, in the ante-chapel,m one. The passages are roofed with large flat stones and the vestibules with two sets of flat slabs forming a triangular arch. All the stones used are of Roman workmanship and many are carved or with inscriptions. Some of the original roof plaster remains. Two of the stairways were for the use of the worshipers, the other by the priests.
The Saxon Apse was discovered during investigations in 1908-10. It is located beneath a trap door in the current choir.
Of the furniture of St. Wilfrid's church only the Frithstool remains. Originally the bishop's seat it was later used as the seat of sanctuary. THere are also the remains of a number of crosses of which the finest once stood at the head of Acca's grave.
Hopefully this article has given an interesting insight into the the history of St. Andrew's Church in Hexham.
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