Whitley Chapel C of E First School - Visit to Hexham Abbey

This is the timeline of Hexham Abbey from 674 AD to the present day.

Queen Ethelreda gifted the land to Bishop Wilfrid in 674 AD. Unfortunately the Vikings came looking for treasure and looted it in 874 AD.

In 1113 AD the Normans came and established a monastery for the Black Canons. In 1296 the Scots came over the border and tried to burn it down.

In 1536 Henry VIII destroyed the monastery and only left the church. It was rebuilt and extended in 1908 by Canon Savage.

We went down some stairs to the crypt. this is where the monks used to come and pray in the original Abbey building built by Wilfrid.

There was an altar down there, and a model of a golden box where the monks used to keep a precious relic. It was the finger of St James.

We went upstairs to where the monks used to sleep and we got dressed up in black habits, like the Black Canons in the 12th Century.

The monks used to come down the Night stair three times a night to pray before they could finally go to sleep.

They came down to pray and chant in the choir. They were not allowed to sit down, but the older monks were allowed to perch on the Misericordes.

One of the jobs the monks did was to copy scriptures onto vellum using a quill pen and ink made of oak nuts. The vellum was cured using urine!

We were allowed to climb down into the apse under the choir floor to see the remains of the outside walls of Bishop Wilfrid's original church.

Zoe showed us some stonemasons tools and told us how they carved special symbols into the walls to show which bits were theirs so they were paid

We didn't have time to carve some stone because it takes ages, but she gave us some clay to try and make some designs of our own.

We really enjoyed working with the clay!

We finished by looking at the bishop's chair that was made for Bishop Wilfrid. You could claim sanctuary from being put in prison for 40 days.

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