Midline of choir towards the west.

First mentioned by Prior Richard (1142-1174), when it stood against altar in abbey church.

St Andrew

Good but worn smooth by constant handling

The upper portion comprising seat and arms are formed from a single hollowed block (now split across the middle). This is set on three rougher stones to form a low wide seat. The back (C) is uncarved, but the front and side elevations and the tops of the arms are decorated with a restrained incised ornament. On the front (A) triple lines emphasize the shape of the arms as an inverted triangle. On the horizontal surface (E) a double incised border encloses at the widest point of the arms triquetra knots loosely clasped in a two-strand twist. On one side (D) three incised lines run parallel to the right corner; it is likely that they once continued along the left side as well, but this part is too damaged to be certain. The other side (B) has been recut.

The original position of this chair which was earlier set in the wall of the medieval choir is unknown. Nor is it known whether its name, `frith stool', was because it was originally associated with the rite of sanctuary, or whether it was originally intended as the seat of the abbot or bishop; in either case the term could apply, since frith-stol is used for the seat of Christ in Heaven. The most usual place for such a seat would be at the east end of the choir, perhaps raised on a step or steps, but it has recently been suggested that the Hexham seat could have been at the west end of the church (Bailey 1976, 56). In shape, this seat is most like the undecorated seat at Beverley (Pl. 263, 1425). Its decoration possibly reflects the taste for wooden seats with metal inlays known from the Germanic world (Cramp 1974, 123-4), and is paralleled in the decoration of the seat on which St Matthew is enthroned in the Stockholm Codex Aureus, fol. 9v (see also Introduction, p. 11).

Last quarter of seventh century

(—)1837; Longstaffe 1861, 153; Wilson 1862-8, 22; Raine 1865, lxv-lxvii, fig. on lxvi; Longstaffe and Greenwell 1869-70; Hodges 1888, pl. 35; Hodges 1890, no. B9, p. 32; Browne 1895, 142; Browne 1897, 126, fig. 4; Savage and Hodges 1907, 54-5, fig. on vii; Hodges 1921, 62-4, pl. 11; Brown 1925, 178, fig. 73; Collingwood 1925, 72, fig. 5Q Collingwood 1927, 28, fig. 35Q Clapham 1930, 74, pl. 30; Rivoira 1933, 151, fig. 561; Pevsner 1957, 177, fig. 27B; Taylor and Taylor 1961, 123-4; Taylor and Taylor 1965, 306; Stoll 1967, 325, pl. 159; Cramp 1974, 123-4, 178, pl. 13A; Taylor 1978, 1066

1. The following are general references to the Hexham stones: (—) 1855-7a, 45-6; Rowe 1877, 62-3; Allen 1889, 230; Bailey 1980, 79, 81, 83.