674, A religious institution founded in Hexham by St Wilfrid--821, Church destroyed by the Danes--1113, Church rebuilt and endowed by Thomas II. Archbishop of York, and dedicated to St Andrew; Augustine Canons placed there--1296, The nave burnt down--1297, Unsuccessful attempts made to restore the nave--1537, Monastery surrendered to Henry VIII.--1706, St Wilfrid’s crypt discovered under the nave of the choir--1907, The foundation stones of the new nave laid. The town of Hexham, picturesquely situated on the southern bank of the river Tyne, 19 miles north of Newcastle, was once the centre of Border warfare and at one time a Roman station. To the west of the old market-place, one of the most interesting in England, stands the ancient abbey--a type of Early English architecture. Of the original Saxon structure the crypt alone remains, under the nave of the choir, consisting of a central and an ante-chamber, with two passages to the west and south. The Roman stones of which it is built were probably brought from the ancient Roman station of Corstopitum (3½ miles distant from Hexham). Unfortunately very little remains of the 12th century church--only, in fact, the greater part of the choir (with the exception of the Early English chapel) and both transepts. Of the conventual buildings we have still the refectory, some portions of the cloisters and the precinct gate. The greater part of the old woodwork was destroyed in the so-called restoration of the present church in 1858; but an exquisitely carved rood screen, and, on the south side of the altar, the Frith stool (supposed to have been St Wilfrid’s chair), may still be seen. Among the many monuments in the present church of special interest is a peculiar slab on which is depicted a Roman horseman, discovered beneath the south entrance in 1881. Until the time of Henry I. the Bishop of Durham exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction over this monastery, but in this reign it was included in the See of York. The church was then rebuilt and Thomas II. of York founded a priory of Augustine Canons. “It was found by inquisition taken in the four and twentieth reign of Edward I. that Thomas the Second, Archbishop of York, did found and endow this Priory--the lands by him given, and by many other Benefactors, were all found and set forth in particular.” In the following century the nave of the church was destroyed by the Scots, and with the exception of some unsuccessful attempts at restoration, was not rebuilt until last year (1907), when the foundation stones of the new nave were laid on June 29th.