Hexham Old Gaol, also called the Manor Office, was commissioned by William Melton, Archbishop of York, and finished in January 1332. It held prisoners from Hexhamshire and, in the 16th century, from the English Middle March, who were kept there before trial in the nearby Moot Hall. It is counted among the oldest purpose-built prisons in England. After the Hexham Riot of 1761, when militia fired on a crowd in the Market Place and about 45 protesters were killed, many survivors were locked up here. The prison closed in 1820 and the building later served as a bank, a solicitor's office, a drill hall and a wartime fire lookout before becoming a museum in 1980.
The ghost reputation rests on local press and tour material. The Northumberland Gazette describes it as haunted by its past prisoners, with dark figures and strange noises, and ghost tours run there. Other pages mention cold spots, blasts of cold air, doors slamming and a feeling of being watched. None of the sources read name a witness or a date, so the haunting is entered as a general, undated reputation tied to a building with a real and grim history.
The building's real history gives the reputation its weight. The 1761 riot left dozens of civilians dead in the Market Place and many survivors in its cells, and the Gazette notes that ghost tours run there all year. Anyone weighing the accounts should treat them as atmosphere reported by visitors, not tested evidence.
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