The 'Priory and'Parish Church of St. Andrew
About 674 Queen Etheldreda gave lands around Hexham to Wilfrid, Bishop of York, to found a monastery and make Hexham a centre of Christianity. After attacks By the Vikings in the ninth century and devastation under William the Conqueror in the eleventh century, the Archbishop of York refounded the church of Hexham in 1113 as a priory of Canons 'Regular of St Augustine.
The Priory was closed in 1537 By Henry VIII under the Dissolution of the Monasteries and lost all its possessions and endowments. The Priory Church, consisting of chancel and transepts, continued in use because it was the parish church. Services were held in the choir; the transepts were only used for baptisms and burials. A few Buildings, a hall, some stone houses and dwellings survived but the only income appears to have been £4 paid to the curate.
The twentieth century has seen the rebuilding of the nave in 1907-08, on the thirteenth-century layout, with a single aisle on the north side. The vestibule to the chapter house was re-roofed in 1955 and used as a chapel, but in 1984 an upper storey, for use as a choir song school, was added (where the canons' dormitory used to be) and the chapel was made into the Hexham Abbey Shop.