Hexham Abbey recently received the brilliant news that they’d been awarded a substantial grant to start resoration work on the Abbey roof. We understand from the Abbey staff that the vergers know exactly where to put the buckets when it rains and this work is expected to make the roof entirely watertight again.

While this is excellent news for Hexham Abbey it does mean that we will no longer be able to use the area on the North side of the Abbey along the footpath to The Sele.  As usual the Abbey have been extremely helpful and we will continue to use the area in front of the Abbey and along Beaumont Street next to the Christmas Tree.  For one of the markets in December we hope to be able to use the Abbey car park or the Quadrant.

The work on Hexham Abbey is expected until Easter 2021.

England went back into a second lockdown in early November with non-essential shops and hospitality required to close.  Fortunately farmers’ markets are exempt from the restrictions but the regulations do affect some of our producers with only food producers allowed to trade.  Sadly Durham Soap Company, Tim Foxall spatulas and Philippa Hodkinson Flowers will not be able to join us this month. However, Tim Foxall and Durham Soap Company both sell online and you can find their respective websites by following the links from their names.

We are extremely happy to be able to bring you a farmers’ market, even with a reduced number of producers, but we do urge all our customers to stick with the rules:

• If you have any COVID symptoms, please stay at home and get a test, as per the recommendations;
• Keep to social distancing (2m) between yourself and other customers and between you and our producers;
• Sanitise your hands frequently
• Queue responsibly
• Please shop alone if you can

Although wearing of masks isn’t compulsory we welcome it if you do.

Thank you for your patience and your cooperation.

The recovery of Hexham Farmers’ Market is taking another step forward on Saturday 25 July, with the very welcome return of Cumberland Mustard, Northumbria Preserves and Stonehouse Smokery.  There will be 20 stalls in total covering just about all products that you might expect at a farmers’ market.

As is now becoming the norm, the market will be on two sides of Hexham Abbey as well on the Market Place and in fact there will be more stalls on the Abbey Flags than on the Market Place. Because of the larger area, you might not see the usual stalls in their familiar places, but chances are that they will be there somewhere: don’t go home empty handed, but ask one of the other stallholders or one of the stewards.

Face coverings became compulsory in shops and other enclosed public space on Friday 24 July. However, as Hexham farmers Market is not an enclosed space, face coverings are welcome, but not required. Our usual CV19 measures continue to apply: Please keep 2m apart, limit the number of people at a stall, regularly sanitise your hands and be patient. We look forward to seeing you there between 9am and 1.30pm.

As we slowly get back to some sort of normality Hexham Farmers’ Market will extend a bit further again this Saturday, 11 July, when a number of stalls will be positioned on the Abbey Flags both at the east and the north side of the Abbey. We will have 17 trading stalls and will see the very welcome return this week of the Durham Soap Company from Lanchester, Tim Foxall spatulas from Haltwhistle and Mawbray Cheese from Cumbria.

Our prime aim is to keep both customers and stallholders safe so we ask that you maintain social distancing at 2m, queue responsibly (also at 2m) and regularly sanitise your hands.  There will be hand sanitiser available at a stall on the Abbey Flags as well as at several of the producer stalls.

The farmers’ market on Saturday 11 July 2020 runs between 9am and 1.30pm.

As you will know, we had to decide to suspend Hexham Farmers’ Market during the Corona COVID-19 outbreak but that doesn’t mean you have to do without high quality, locally produced food completely. Quite a few of our producers will  take telephone or online orders and either deliver to your door, or send out their products.  The group is likely to be changing, depending on how long the current situation lasts, but people happy to do so are as of today (20/4/2020) as follows (some minimum orders may apply):

Askerton Castle Estate: Organic meat and chicken. Delivery on Fridays.

Slackhouse Farm: Organic Birdoswald Cheese, yoghurt, milk, eggs. Delivery: Tuesday

Noisette Catering: home-made ready meals. Delivery Fridays, so orders by Monday please

Ravensworth Grange: Rare breed pork

Muckle Brewing: Locally brewed beers

Northumberland Honey Co: the clue is in the name!

Durham Soap Company: We all need soap now!

Meraki Cacao: Scruptious cacao bars

Stonehouse Smokery: high quality charcuterie

Hallsford Farm: Beef, lamb and sausages as well as some products from other places

Northumberland Cheese Company: variety of cheeses amde with cows, sheeps and goats milk

Spicy Monkey: the curry sauces that you’re used to from the market as well as other goodies

Cumberland Mustard: variety of mustards and other condiments

Others, including Bread and Roses bakery are working on an online shop and testing the logistics.