<< Our Photo Pages >> Hexham Abbey - Ancient Cross in England in Northumberland
Submitted by TimPrevett on Sunday, 20 May 2007 Page Views: 9189
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Hexham Abbey Alternative Name: St Andrew (Hexham), St Acca's Cross; ERA-779; SMR/HER N8745Country: England County: Northumberland Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Hexham
Map Ref: NY93516409
Latitude: 54.971384N Longitude: 2.102913W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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I have visited· I would like to visit
TheCaptain visited on 26th Sep 2022 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5 A morning looking round Hexham Abbey with some wonderful old carved stone things in there.
Anne T visited on 3rd Sep 2014 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Hexham Abbey, Northumberland: St Acca and Spital Cross Shafts.
23rd August 2015: Took my daughter and her husband to the new visitor centre after a lovely lunch in the Refectory (much recommended). We had great fun dressing up as Queen Ethelreda, Bishop Wilfrid and Augustinian monks). There was brass rubbing and computerised caligraphy to try. As well as interactive displays for the young at heart, there is also a serious section with a display of Anglo Saxon and Viking stones, a model of, and press-screen history of the abbey. A great time was had by all and I found not only the Spital Cross but a number of other stones I'd been searching for in the Anglo Saxon Corpus of Stone Sculpture and not found in my previous visit. Well worth coming.
3rd September 2014: Acca succeeded St. Wilfrid as the Bishop of Hexham in AD709, withdrawing (or also said to have been deposed) from office in AD732 and dying in AD740. The two crosses purported to mark the head and foot of his grave stand in the south transept of Hexham Abbey (on the right hand side as you enter the main church from the porch), next to St. Etheldreda’s Chapel. However, there is some confusion as to whether or not these two cross shafts are St. Acca’s grave markers, or whether the larger may just be a preaching cross set up in the first years of Christianity. However, Hexham Abbey proudly displays them as St. Acca’s.
The two cross shafts stand side by side. The larger cross shaft is called ‘St. Acca’s Cross’. The second, smaller cross-shaft, is known as the ‘Spital Cross’.
I approached a steward to ask if was OK to take some photographs, and he told me it was, providing I didn’t use flash. He knew a fair bit about the crosses, very kindly photocoping a leaflet on Acca and Acca’s Cross for me to take away. He told me that St. Acca’s cross had been broken up in antiquity and the pieces scattered, being put back together in the 19th century – there is a plain piece of modern stone where the cross arms would have been. Interestingly, he told me that the lower portion of St. Acca’s cross was found at nearby Dilston, where it had been used as a lintel in a farmhouse door.
St. Acca’s Cross is most gloriously decorated with vine scrolls which interleave and entwine.
The Spital Cross, as described in his leaflet: “was found at Spital which is 1.3 km west of Hexham, and stood near a house on the site of the medieval Hospital ofSt. Giles.” This cross shaft has very interesting vine scrolls on three sides and a crucifixion scene on its front face.
The area within the Abbey immediately around the crosses is used by the Stewards who greet people who come to look at the Abbey and to display information for visitors and worshippers – which strangely echoes their possible past uses as preaching crosses. When I was there, most people actually walked by without noticing them, although because I was taking photographs, a couple of people came up to ask more.
Opposite both cross shafts, and at the bottom of the Abbey night stair, is a Roman tombstone which dates from the first century.
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.5 Ambience: 4 Access: 5
For information on rock art, see England's Rock Art entry for ERA-779 Hexham Abbey, Monastic Workshop, which gives details of a panel with one cup mark, adding "several other, similar markings can be seen in the Abbey." The ERA entry includes photographs, a sketch of the stone and its motif, plus a map of where the stone is located.
For details of the crossse and Anglo Saxon sculptured stones, see the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture, Northumberland catalogue, entries for Hexham, starting AS Corpus Hexham 01.
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