The Frith Stool stands in the middle of the Choir at Hexham Abbey, a solid block of sandstone that was broken in two during the 19th century and cemented together again; the stone has been worn smooth by human hands over many centuries. It was made into a seat in the earliest days of the church, probably in the 7th century, and it has played a part in its story ever since.
When Wilfrid founded the first church at Hexham he was Bishop of the Northumbrians with his seat at York; but later he became abbot and bishop here at what was then known as the Hagustaldian Church, so almost certainly he sat on this as his throne; with, it is to be hoped, a cushion. Hexham was a cathedral, at the centre of a diocese, from about 678 to about 821, and this throne was perhaps made the bishop’s official cathedra.
Wilfrid used stones brought from the Roman ruins at Corbridge for his church, and this large block of stone too may have been quarried originally by Roman workmen. Probably Wilfrid’s own Anglo-Saxon Northumbrians scooped out the seat and carved the simple patterns on the arms and front. There parallel straight lines to emphasise the outline of the seat, and an interlace design on the upper side of the arms ending in a triquetra. The same pattern appears in a manuscript illumination of St Matthew seated in a wooden chair that was painted at Canterbury perhaps about 750; but the design is so simple that it could have been carved at almost any time. The seat seems to have been set against a wall, in the middle of stone benches for other clergy; and perhaps it was once on stone supports carved in animal form, rather like larger versions of the beasts now in the niches of the nave.
Prior Richard, who led the new community in its early days and was the first historian of Hexham, wrote of it with pride, calling it the FRITH STOOL The Frith Stool was ‘the Chair of Peace’. Frith, though now obsolete, was common enough in Prior Richard’s time and long before, in Anglo-Saxon English and Old German, meaning peace, security and freedom from molestation. Different forms of the word are found in the name ‘Frederick’ (peace-ruler) and the modem German words for peace, Friede, and churchyard, Friedhof. Many of the greater churches had such frith stools placed, as was this one, close by the high altar. Refugees in time of trouble and civil war, or wrongdoers in flight from authority and justice could claim the protection of the Church until they were assured of a full and fair trial. Anyone breaking the right to sanctuary by taking or killing a refugee within the church was liable to a fine of £96; but, writes Prior Richard, if the victim reached ‘the stone cathedra next to the altar, which the English call the fridstol’, that breach of sanctuary was beyond pardon, and the culprit faced excommunication or death.
The Frith Stool remained close by the high altar throughout the Middle Ages, and it was certainly used in the troubled times of the Border Wars, though we cannot be sure just how much safety it guaranteed. Deserters and petty thieves found their way to the protection of the Priory Church and became ‘grithmen’. In Edward Ill’s reign, the king authorised the recruitment of such wrongdoers into the army. In Tudor times the right of sanctuary was strictly limited, for Henry VIII would allow no one to defy the royal law; and it was completely abolished soon after.
Does it also have a rood screen?
Yes, Hexham Abbey does have a rood screen. It can been seen underneath the organ in the second photo in my Hexham Abbey post.