Bedale: Guide

Bedale is a small market town and civil parish in the district of Hambleton, North Yorkshire, England, at the foot of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales.

The post-Conquest town was founded by Scollandus, a Breton people|Breton official in residence at Richmond Castle. This is the site of a castle built in the reign of King Edward I of England, by an illegitimate relation to the Earl of Richmond; Bryan FitzAlan, Baron of Bedale. Bryan was Lord-Lieutenant (viceroy) of Scotland for Edward I of England. It is from Bryan that Edward was notable as Hammer of the Scots, for he was a chief baron amongst the others involved in the border battles, such as those with William Wallace. This Lord also built Askham Bryan in the city of York. Bedale has been the site of many skirmishes. Scots raided the countryside and folks expected to find security in the pele tower of St. Gregory's. Sir Gilbert de Stapleton Order of the Garter|KG was a conspirator in the assassination of Piers Gaveston. Bedale had traditionally been a Lancastrian area, until the Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick|Kingmaker, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence|Clarence and Richard III of England|Gloucester obtained Richmond and Middleham Castles. Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell led the charge of insurgency in the Yorkist Lovell-Stafford rebellion against Henry VII of England, who was previously Earl of Richmond. Residents were not pleased with the usurping Tudor dynasty (like the Woodvilles before them) and went on several recusancy strikes, such as the Pilgrimage of Grace and made trouble for Lord Latimer (Catherine Parr's husband before Henry VIII) in Snape Castle. This continued in the Rising of the North, with Simon Digby of Aiskew. Political climate changed during the English Civil War, when the local sentiment was Cavalier and Middleham was once again a fortress of political entrenchment.

Bedale St. Gregory is the parish church in the Church of England in the rural deanery of Wensley within the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds. This Gothic church retains some Catholic relics, although invading Puritans during the Civil War had vandalised a few such features. There is a plaque of the previous "movers and shakers" in the town, featuring coats of arms owned by these people and families: Fitz Alan, Stapleton, Grey of Rotherfield, Marquess of Normanby|Sheffield, Warren (Earl of Surrey), Brian de Thornhill, West Yorkshire|Thornhill, Lawrence de Thornhill, Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, Fitz Hugh of Tanfield, John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, Marmion, Arthur III, Duke of Brittany and Ascough (Aiskew/ Ainscough).

Duke of Norfolk|Lord Beaumont and baronet relatives to the Marquess of Waterford are joint lords of the manor in town, which has Georgian architecture. Existing historic buildings include an eighteenth century apothecary's store for leeches, an underground Icehouse (building)|ice house used for preserving food, and the fourteenth century market cross. Bedale is home to a small museum, numerous Georgian architecture|Georgian buildings, and a Bedale railway station|station on the Wensleydale Railway, which runs to Redmire via Leyburn. The Thorpe Perrow Arboretum lies nearby, as do the villages of Burneston, Burrill, Cowling, Exelby and Firby.

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