St Peter's Church, Hexham

By J W Fawcett

Wilfrid, the “Star of the Anglo-Saxon Church,” second Bishop of York, and founder of the Monasteries of Ripon and Hexham, built, or caused to be built, three churches at Hexham. The first was that of St Andrew, erected between 674 and 678; the second, erected about the same time, was dedicated to St Peter, of which more anon; and the third, erected between 705 and 709, was dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. Of them only St Andrew's remains, and is incorporated with the present parish church. St Mary's went to decay in the sixteenth century, and its site — east of St Andrew's — is now occupied by business places and other buildings. St Peter's disappeared about the twelfth century altogether. Of its history very little is known, and that little only exists in the history of the Church of Hexham written by Richard, the Prior of Hexham, who died between 1174 and 1178. He tells us that it was further removed from the Priory than St Mary's Church, which stood on the east side of St Andrew's, and was separated from it by a grave yard and a narrow lane by foot passengers, but he does not say where, and today, as time has left no trace of its walls, and history no record of its situation, and tradition no recollection of its site, antiquaries, historians, and topographers seek in vain for the place it occupied. According to an account written by Eddi, Wilfrid's Chaplain, and printed in the Roll's series edition of the Historians of York, St Peter's Church seems to have been erected about the same time as the Priory and Church of St Andrew, between the years 674 and 678. As the Priory Church of St Andrew was only attended by the Canons of the house, St Peter's Church was evidently the church for the laity and the inhabitants of the town and district, until the erection of St Mary's, between 705 and 709, when they probably shared that honour.

During a great inroad of the Danes in 875, the churches of St Andrew, St Mary, and St Peter were burnt, as well as the stately Abbey and all their sacred relics destroyed and their riches ruthlessly plundered. For nearly two centuries they lay in ruins. At length the Church of St Mary's was restored on its original plan, about the first half of the eleventh century, and the Church of St Andrew in the latter half. But the Church of St Peter seems never to have been restored, for it is never again referred to. Prior Richard in his history, written in the middle of the twelfth century, does mention the church, but that is all. He describes the architecture of St Andrew's and of St Mary's, but gives nothing of that of St Peter. His entire silence on this matter is conclusive evidence that the building was not then in existence. Probably its ruined remains were used in the rebuilding of the other churches, for soon after it seems to have disappeared altogether. In a list of the churches of Hexham and the neighbourhood, drawn up in November 1310, the Parish Church of St Andrew's and the Chapel of St Mary both occur, but no mention is made of St Peter's. It was then evidently gone entirely. As already stated, it is impossible to identify its site at the present day. It may or it may not have stood on one side — the north or perhaps the east — of an open space corresponding roughly to the modern marketplace.