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Visit Hexham Northumberland and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast, hotel or self-catering accommodation provided by BedPosts members.

Hexham, Northumberland, is 21 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Hexham owes its existence to a controversial 7th-century bishop and saint. He was Wilfrid (about AD 634—709), the urbane son of an important local nobleman. Wilfred became bishop of a vast diocese centred on York and stretching from The Wash in the south to the Firth of Forth in the north. Very wealthy, he ran his household on a kingly scale. He was also a close friend of Northumbria’s powerful King Egfrith and his queen, Etheldreda. However, Wilfrid somewhat overreached himself a few years later when he encouraged Queen - later Saint - Etheldreda to leave her husband and become a nun. The king retaliated by demoting and imprisoning Wilfrid. Released on condition that he left Northumbria, he passed many years in exile before returning in AD 686 with reduced powers. 5 years later he was again exiled and ?nally returned four years before he died. Wilfrid spent these last years as Bishop of Hexham. In his years of power he founded many monasteries including the one at Hexham.

The Danes destroyed most of the church he built here 150 years after his death. Wilfrid’s crypt, however, survives.

Beneath the abbey’s east front - which was added in the late 1800s - is Market Place. Sheep and cattle sales are held at the market, which attracts farmers from all over Northumberland.

Nearby is Moot Hall, a fortress—like place built in the late 14th century and used today for exhibitions, meetings and social functions.

Visit Hexham Old Gaol bult in 1330.