Hexham

Yesterday we went in to Hexham which was having its twice monthly market. It was a pretty lame affair with maybe a dozen booths selling some produce but also a lot of just crap. But Hexham only has 12,000 people so we can't expect them to have a Madison quality market.

On the other hand we found an excellent independent bookshop and Madison now has NO indies except niche stores like Booked for Murder and A Room Of One's Own. It was our duty, of course, to demonstrate our support for this plucky independent trying to survive in an Amazon world and we stepped up to the plate.

We had lunch in a nice little tea room and toured the abbey.







The church was originally built in the 7th century but the current buildings are all 13th or later except the original 7th century crypt.







I was interested to learn that the crypt was created to draw tourists and tourist dollars to Hexham. For real. The Bishop at the time shopped around until he found some holy relics - bones of Saint Andrew I think - so that he could house them, display them and bring pilgrims and their offerings to the Church. I guess this strategy is still working for that matter; tourists like us come to see the crypt even without the Sacred objects and then make donations for the upkeep of the church.

When we first got to the abbey before lunch we stumbled into an organ recital that was part of a Music in The Abbey series; it was fun to sit in that magnificent building and listen to the music. It's not true that I fell asleep during the concert.

Today we're off to Yorkshire for two nights at the edge of North Yorkshire Moors national park and then down to York itself.