Moot Hall

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Moot Hall closes the east side of the market place in Hexham, Northumberland. This mighty stone gate tower guarded the entrance to the Hallgate enclosure, the seat of power of the Archbishops of York, who held the regality (lordship) of Hexham; a few dozen metres away stands the other tower of the complex, the former prison (Old Gaol). The T-shaped building combines a four-storey gate tower, pierced by a vaulted passage once closed by a portcullis, with a crenellated annexe with machicolations. It served as the court of the archiepiscopal jurisdiction and later of the region, and is among the best-preserved medieval courtrooms in the north of England. Specialists regard the two towers as parts of a single fortified complex, perhaps once linked by an enclosure wall. The Moot Hall, a Grade I listed building, now houses a gallery on the ground floor and the county museum services on the upper floors.