Hexham driving test centre
St Andrews House, Haugh Lane, Hexham, NE46 3EW
Drive the 5 routes around Hexham before test day →
Key facts
- Hexham's pass rate was 53% in 2025/26 from 1,388 tests, 3 points above the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 4 of 11 centres in North East (North East average 48.4%), one of the higher pass rates in the region, 4.6 points above it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has fallen by 9.1 points, from 62.1% to 53%.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 16.9 weeks since booking (longer than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 18.2 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 18.9 weeks, so waits have shortened by about 2 weeks.
- 32.4% of the standard slots in the booking window were still unbooked in August 2026, which usually means a cancellation or new date is realistic here.
Hexham's pass rate has fallen further than almost any centre in the North East: 62.1 per cent in 2021/22, 53 per cent now. It is still above the regional average, and still well ahead of Gateshead and Gosforth, but this is not the soft option it was a few years ago. The centre is St Andrews House on Haugh Lane, a short walk from Hexham station and close to the river. The driving splits three ways: a compact town where more than a third of the roads are 20 mph, the Rotary Way bypass and the fast roads it feeds, and the hill roads that climb out of the Tyne valley in every direction. Waits run to around seventeen weeks.
Drive the Hexham test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 55 km in all, with 34 roundabouts and 94 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Hexham; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Hexham from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 55 km · 94 marked turns
- Examiner-style marking on signalling and observation
- Street View tour of each route
- Every roundabout and junction, in the order you'll meet them
- The four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios, included
One payment, no renewal. Or £9.99 a month with a 3-day free trial. Cancel any time.
Everything else on PassRank, every centre, its pass rate, its waiting time and the forum, is free and needs no account.
- Route 1 · via Rotary Way9.7 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 7 left turns and a stretch of Leazes Lane.9.7 km · 21 turns · 7 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Causey Hill Road9.8 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 6 right turns, 3 left turns and a stretch of Rotary Way.9.8 km · 16 turns · 7 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Rotary Way11.0 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 7 left turns and a stretch of Eilansgate.11.0 km · 18 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Shaws Lane11.9 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 4 right turns, 3 left turns and a stretch of Allendale Road.11.9 km · 15 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Rotary Way12.7 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 9 left turns and a stretch of Causey Hill Road.12.7 km · 24 turns · 8 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
Hexham is a hill town and the loops treat it as one. Causey Hill Road, Allendale Road and Oakwood Bank all climb hard out of the valley, and Eilansgate and Leazes Lane drop back into it. Expect a hill start on a gradient steeper than the one you practised on, and expect to be stopped on a hill and asked to move off with something coming.
The town itself is slow. More than a third of the roads inside the area are 20 mph, and the streets round Beaumont Street and Leazes Crescent are narrow, parked on one side, with give-way priorities that are not always obvious from the sign. Nine schools sit in that same small area.
Rotary Way is the counterweight. It carries through traffic round the town and links to the fast roads, and roughly a third of the roads in the area are at 60 or 70, high for a centre this size. Building speed on a slip road, then settling back into a 30 not long afterwards, is the sequence that catches people out.
There are only seven sets of traffic lights within the area, so junctions are decided by judgement rather than a green light. Eight mini-roundabouts and Bridge End Roundabout carry most of that load. The mini-roundabouts near Alemouth Road and Station Road are tight, and failing to signal the exit is the fault that gets marked.
Waiting time for a test at Hexham
Median weeks between booking and taking the test, for tests taken each month. Dashed line: GB median for August 2026.
| Month | Median wait | Weeks to free slots | Slots offered | Still free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 16.9 | 18.2 | 25 | 32.4% |
| Jul 2026 | 16.9 | 24 | 23 | 33.3% |
| Jun 2026 | 17.5 | 22.4 | 22 | 35.8% |
| May 2026 | 16.1 | 19.5 | 16 | 38.9% |
| Apr 2026 | 17.4 | 21 | 23 | 38.3% |
| Mar 2026 | 13 | 24 | 29 | 25% |
Pass rate at Hexham, 2007/08 to 2025/26
Share of car tests passed each April-to-March year. Dashed line: Great Britain average for 2025/26.
Month by month, 2025/26
By year and gender
| Year | Tests | Pass rate | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 1,388 | 53.0% | 53.1% | 52.8% |
| 2024/25 | 1,213 | 56.7% | 55.8% | 57.7% |
| 2023/24 | 1,166 | 59.3% | 59.5% | 59.1% |
| 2022/23 | 907 | 56.0% | 58.4% | 54.0% |
| 2021/22 | 942 | 62.1% | 64.5% | 60.0% |
| 2020/21 | 321 | 67.6% | 68.7% | 67.1% |
| 2019/20 | 935 | 61.2% | 66.3% | 57.4% |
| 2018/19 | 959 | 58.3% | 63.2% | 54.4% |
North East average 48.4% · GB 50%
Tell me when the wait at Hexham drops
One email when DVSA’s monthly figure falls, or goes under the number of weeks you choose. No newsletter.
Test day at Hexham
St Andrews House stands on Haugh Lane, on the low ground between the station and the town centre. Hexham station is under a kilometre away, which makes this one of the easier centres in the North East to reach without a car, and the walk that is uphill comes afterwards rather than before.
GOV.UK lists car tests only here, with no motorcycle or lorry testing, and says the centre can be accessed if you use a wheelchair.
Parking is not published. Haugh Lane and the streets around it hold a mix of business units and public parking, and the usual arrangement at a centre of this kind is that instructors drop candidates at the door and find a space nearby. If you drive yourself, add a quarter of an hour for it.
You will be called by name, asked for your licence, and asked to confirm that the car is insured for the test. The eyesight check is done outside on a parked plate before you get in. Everything to do with booking, moving or cancelling a test happens on GOV.UK.
What DVSA publishes about Hexham
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- car
- Wheelchair access
- DVSA states you can access this centre in a wheelchair.
Learner reports from Hexham
No reports yet for this centre. If you tested here, the first one is yours to write.
What examiners mark most often
DVSA does not publish faults by centre, but it does publish them nationally. These collected the most marks across every car test in Great Britain in 2025/26, and they are the same ones you will be marked on at Hexham.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
St Andrews House, Haugh LaneHexham NE46 3EW
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
Questions learners ask about Hexham
- Is Hexham an easy test centre?
- By the numbers, yes: 53% of car tests were passed there in 2025/26, against 50.0% nationally. Pass rates reflect the local roads and who takes tests there as much as the examiners, so treat it as a guide, not a guarantee.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Hexham?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Hexham was 16.9 weeks, and you had to look about 18.2 weeks ahead to find a week with at least 10% of slots free. DVSA publishes this monthly; the figure above updates when they do.
- Where is Hexham driving test centre?
- Hexham test centre is at St Andrews House, Haugh Lane, Hexham, NE46 3EW. Arrive at least 10 minutes early with your provisional licence; parking rules vary by centre, so check the learner reports below.
- How many driving tests does Hexham do a year?
- 1,388 car tests were conducted at Hexham in 2025/26, of which 735 were passed.
Source: DVSA tables DRT122A (pass rates by centre and month) and DRT122F (waiting times and availability), Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRank adds the comparisons and rankings.
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