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Bedale

Landmarks of Bedale
Aiskew

Bedale is known as the Gateway to the Dales, and with good reason. It is easily accessible as it is only a mile or so from the A1, and it is midway between Northallerton, the county town of North Yorkshire, and Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales. It holds a regular Tuesday market and the Market Place is full of interesting shops and buildings. There are also lots of things to see and do in Bedale and nearby.

It seems that there has been a settlement at Bedale for almost two millennia - stones have been found which are typical of Roman masonry. There was an early Saxon church - so the place was clearly of some local importance before the Normans arrived towards the end of the 11th century. Bedale was in the wapentake of Hang East.

Bedale developed as the centre point of trade routes from Ripon, Wensley and Northallerton. When Northallerton was on the Great North Road (the Roman Dere Street) it was of prime importance for livestock sales and drovers would bring their sheep down from the Dales, through Bedale, and on to Northallerton. Later it assumed importance as a coaching stage before the coming of the railways.

In 1251 Henry III granted Bedale its Market Charter - and the town continues to thrive to this day.

Bedale didn’t change much in appearance for the next 400 or so years - many of its buildings were made of wattle and daub in timber frames, so it retained a distinctly medieval look.

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Landmarks of Bedale

Bedale started to prosper in the latter half of the 18th century and some of the newly generated wealth was spent on replacing existing buildings with brick-built dwellings. Much of Bedale’s current stock of buildings is Georgian as a walk down the long Market Place reveals. The Market Place is an exceptionally broad and sweeping cobbled street and is the centrepiece of the town.

Bedale Market Cross

The 14th century tower of the Church of St Gregory holds a commanding position overlooking the town. One of its eight bells was taken from the ruins of nearby Jervaulx Abbey. It is believed that this is one of the oldest bells in the country still in regular use. St Gregory’s is built in Gothic style of architecture.

There used to be a castle at Bedale, to the south-west of the Church, built by Brian Fitzalan, Lord of Bedale, around 1300, but this fell into gross disrepair and what few remains there are have been completely overgrown.

Bedale Hall, standing in parkland at the north end of the Market Place, is a splendid building built early in the 18th century and extended and improved towards the end of the century by John Carr. It is host to Bedale Museum with a fine collection of local artefacts including farming and dairy equipment, tools, household appliances, memorabilia from the two world wars, and a wooden, hand-drawn fire engine which dates back to 1748. The Hall had its own Ice House - built in the 18th century and used for storing ice before the days of refrigerators. The Ice House still stands in the grounds of Bedale Hall.

Bedale has several other interesting properties in or near the town. Where else in this country would you find a Leech House - a place used by the local apothecary for storing the ‘tools of his trade’, so to speak? The answer is ‘nowhere’ as the Bedale Leech House is the only surviving one of its kind. It dates back to the 18th century and is now a Grade 2 listed building. Although the House itself is only open on Heritage Days, the garden is open to the public most days of the year.

At the top of Emgate - one of the oldest streets in Bedale, and once called Hemgate - you can find the 14th century Market Cross. Emgate was once a thriving commercial area filled with tradesmen such as auctioneers, beer sellers, boot makers, braziers, cabinet makers, fellmongers, grocers, hairdressers, joiners, public houses, rope makers, shoe makers, tailors, taverns, tin-plate workers, turners, twine makers, and wool-staplers. You can still find many interesting shops, inns and places to eat in Bedale.

Hird’s Annals of Bedale (a copy of which resides in the County Record Office of North Yorkshire County Council) was written by one Robert Hird (1768-1841), one of four shoe makers who lived and worked in Emgate.

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Aiskew

Bedale is virtually conjoined with the village of Aiskew - Bedale Beck, a tributary of the River Swale, separates the two.

Like so many of the villages and hamlets in the region, Aiskew dates back at least to Viking times - its name means oak wood and derives from Old Scandinavian eik and skógr. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Echescol and there’s a later reference (from 1235) to Aykescogh.

 

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