Visit of Archæologists

On Wednesday, July 24th, nearly 200 ladies and gentlemen, most of whom were connected with the Durham and Northumberland Archæological Society and the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, visited Hexham, and were shown over the Abbey Church and the nave in course of erection by Mr C C Hodges, the resident architect. Mr Hodges addressed the visitors in the quire of the church. He pointed out that Hexham had been a place of habitation from prehistoric times, as it was an ideal spot. They had evidence of corn growing long before the arrival of the Romans into the country. Ancient British burials had been found, showing that there was occupation in the locality from a very early period. There were roads too before the Romans came. These were the British trackways, which had characteristics of their own, being narrow and winding. The Roman roads, the mediæval roads, and also the ratione tenuræ roads of the 17th and 18th centuries — made on the enclosure of the common lands — were also referred to, as were the names of the rivers. As to the site of Hexham, it had all the ancient characteristics of a town, being one of these places formed at the junction of three lane ends. That was the first germination of the site of a town. People came from different directions and met at some convenient place to barter goods, and in process of time other things would grow, such as places for refreshments — the precursors of the modern inns. They had no evidence that Hexham was occupied as a British oppidum. There was one of these on the crags at Gunnerton, though the largest in this neighbourhood was at Corbridge. After the Romans left the country the Teutonic invasion occurred, and the Anglians settled in this northern part of the island. The Anglians were superior to the Saxons and Jutes, who occupied the southern portions of the country.

The history of Hexham began with the Battle of Heavenfield, between Cadwalla and Oswald; Cadwalla was defeated and driven south, and Oswald, who was a Christian, became King of Northumbria. Mr Hodges then sketched the history of Hexham from the time of Wilfrid and his cathedral, which was founded in 674, and which stood on the site of the present nave. The Danish wars of the ninth and tenth centuries reduced the larger number, if not the whole, of the churches in Northumbria to an intermittent or continued state of ruin and abandonment, and Hexham shared the fate of the others. It had fallen from the status of a bishop's see to that of an ordinary parish church. Proof of the burning of the church by the Danes was obtained during the excavations for the Nave. St Wilfrid's Church remained intact for 150 or 200 years, and it fell, as he had said, at the time of the Danish wars. In 1025 the elder Eilaf obtained from Archbishop Thomas I of York leave to restore the church, a work which was continued by his son, the younger Eilaf. Some years later a body of Augustine Canons were introduced into Hexham under Archbishop Thomas II, and were ruled by the first prior, Asketill, The church was cathedral and parochial for 439 years, conventual and parochial for 424 years, and finally parochial for 362 years, up to the present day [1907].

Mr Hodges then explained that the heritage left to Hexham by the Canons who built the church was a valuable one, but there was another side to the question. It was a serious charge upon the parish to maintain such a structure, and keep it in proper repair and in a stable condition. He instanced many cases where a conventual church, as Hexham was, had only survived in a maimed and mutilated condition, as Waltham, Malmesbury, Thorney, Holm Cultram, and Holy Trinity, Micklegate, the only monastic church in York now in use. Here we were most fortunate in that the fine chancel and transepts and central tower has survived that lethargic period in church history, the 17th and 18th centuries, in a complete state. He referred to the work of reparation that had been carried out during the past few years, and he said they owed a certain duty as Englishmen and Englishwomen, and as members of the community to maintain in a proper manner such buildings as Hexham Abbey which were national monuments. He appealed to his hearers to support the scheme of the Rector and Churchwardens to repair and restore this ancient and noble church. There was no endowment for that purpose. If the sum of £2,000 had not been recently expended on the north transept it would not have been standing there to-day.

The RectorCanon Sidney Savage was unable to be present with them that day, but standing in his church he (Mr Hodges) thought it his duty to appeal to them to support the Rector in his efforts to conserve this historic building in repair and in all its completeness. The Rector was worthy of all praise for the energetic and strenuous manner in which he had worked to complete the church and to preserve it from injury. More money had been spent upon it during the years that the Rector had been at Hexham than at any one time since Wilfrid built his cathedral. The speaker incidentally mentioned that there were 124 men — including 81 masons — banker hands‘banker’ was a stone bench used by masons for hewing on — employed on the new nave, and that the building was expected to be completed in two years. By the kind attention of Mr W H Jones, Messrs Holloway Bros, manager, the party were shown the works in progress connected with the building of the Nave. Mr Hodges then addressed the visitors in the open air in the Campy Hill (near to the new nave), and described some of the old stones that were found. The Hexham Courant