Hexham Abbey's 'Hope and Resilience' Exhibition Marks the Somme's 110th Anniversary

A remarkable collection of Tynedale's First World War stories has gone on public display at Hexham Abbey, much of it never shared before. Hexham Hope and Resilience, marking the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, has grown from a small opening display into a full exhibition running from 20 July to 20 September 2026.

What makes it distinctive is who put it together. The exhibition is the work of the Abbey's Conservation Volunteers, who put out an appeal for local people to share family letters, diaries, medals, photographs and memories. The response was generous, and the result is a portrait of the war as it was lived in Hexham and the surrounding villages rather than a distant account of a battlefield in France.

Local names, local regiment

At the heart of the display is the town's own regiment. The 4th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers had its headquarters in Hexham, with detachments raised across Tynedale in places such as Corbridge, Bellingham, Haltwhistle and Prudhoe. Volunteers have been preparing a readable version of the battalion's war diary so visitors can follow, in the unit's own words, what its men experienced.

The home front, remembered

The exhibition reaches well beyond the trenches to the community left at home. It draws in the work of local Voluntary Aid hospitals and the women who staffed and supported them, the arrival of Belgian refugees in the district, and the ordinary business of keeping families and a town going through years of loss. Visitors are also encouraged to look around the Abbey itself, from the Northumberland Fusiliers' colours to the font and the sanctuary candles, and to consider the building's role as a place of comfort for grieving families.

Best for: Much of the material gathered for the exhibition will become part of a permanent digital archive, preserving these family stories for future generations long after the display comes down.

That lasting legacy is the point. This is heritage assembled from the bottom up, by volunteers and by the descendants of the people it commemorates, and it will outlive the two months it is on show.

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Full details are on the Hexham Abbey website. Hero image: Hexham Abbey by Stuart Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0.