A BRIEF HISTORY OF BEDALE AND ITS MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
Bedale is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086), at which time it had a Church. By the 13th Century, a park for hunting had been established, and in 1251 the Market Charter was granted. It was probably following that grant that the wide Market Place south of the Church was laid out. The earlier focus of settlement would probably have been around the Church and the castle, built in the 13th Century a little to the south west of the Church. Few traces of the castle have been recorded. Although Bedale dates back to the medieval period and beyond, its high point must have been in the late 18th Century, a time of prosperity when the town centre was improved. At this time, the Market Place Tollbooth and other buildings were demolished, and the western side of North End largely re-built with superior three storey houses which gave this street its Georgian dignity. The local shoemaker and diarist Robert Hird (1768 - 1841) recorded how the town changed from a huddle of timber framed houses with thatched or slate roofs to the late 18th Century Georgian elegance we see today. Were Hird to return, much of the main street would be familiar to him.
Origins and Street Plan
The town probably grew up around the Church, Castle and Hall with the Market Place added to the south. The 14th Century Market Cross stands at the meeting place of the Wynd, Emgate and Market Place, the main medieval roads.
The wide Market Place, lined with buildings at the head of long narrow garden plots, was probably laid out following the foundation of the market. This pattern of long narrow plots reaching down to Bedale Beck to the east, and to the Back Lane at Wycar, is one of the important characteristics of the town.
In the 18th Century, while the better quality houses were grouped near the Church and Hall, by contrast, Emgate was home to Bedale's industries which included cloth fulling and tanning, which were particularly unpleasant. Emgate contained many cottages, described by Hird as "low and numerous", many built of timber and daub with thatched or slate roofs.
Bridge Street is relatively modern. It does not appear on a map of the town made in 1786, but is shown on a map of 1838. It clearly cuts across the grain of the garden plots, and contains the 19th Century Auction Mart and Old Chapel.
The map overleaf shows the town in 1850, just before the railway arrived. The town straggled southwards along South End, towards the Widows Hospital (almshouses now demolished) and the Workhouse, later to become Mowbray Grange Hospital. Later 19th Century terraces of houses are a feature of this area. Beyond the garden plots west of the Market Place lies Wycar with a triangular green planted with mature trees. Bounding Wycar and along the southern boundary of Bedale Park are several Victorian or Edwardian
The Components of Character
The character of Bedale is provided by a handful of different elements which combine to give the town a distinctive appearance. These elements are as follows:
1. The Buildings
Mostly of brick, some of stone or cobbles with pantile or slate roofs. A few stone slate roofs survive. The more important houses are three storey, the smaller cottages are two storey, but most buildings are joined together in continuous frontages along the main streets.
2. Tofts, Crofts and Garths
Behind the buildings are long narrow gardens, called garths, tofts or crofts, bounded by walls of brick or
cobble.
3. Back Lanes
As in many other towns and villages, the narrow gardens on the west side of the main street are bounded by a back lane, Wycar.
4. Greens
The back lane at Wycar is bounded by a small triangular green, and there are smaller greens along the roadside at South End.
These four elements in various combinations make up a number of distinct sub areas in the conservation area as follows:
Market Place
South End
Bedale Park
Parish Church Area
Emgate
Wycar
Beckside and The Harbour
The Components of the Bedale Conservation Area
1. The Market Place
The long curving main street extending from South End to North End via Market Place provides the most characteristic feature of Bedale. The view north is effectively closed by Bedale Hall and the Parish Church, while the medieval cross punctuates the scene at its midpoint.
Some of the best three storey Georgian houses are clustered together between The Wynd and The Hall, while on the lower lying east side of North End, the buildings are more varied, of two and three storeys, with cobbled walling concealed beneath render.
A further group of fine 18th Century three storey former town houses clusters around the Market Cross at the head of Emgate, while further groups cluster near the Town Hall and line the west side of Market Place to the south of The Wynd. The Market Place and North End have retained their cobbled areas to each side of the carriageway, and these areas of traditional paving provide a vernacular counterpoint to the polite architecture of the street. Many of the shops lining the main street have well detailed 18th Century shop fronts with carved console brackets and other details. The survival of so many older shop fronts is a particular feature of Bedale.
2. South End
The character of South End is different to that of Market Place, with mainly two storey cottages instead of three storey town houses. Front gardens appear on the east side of the road, while on the west side, Victorian and later houses lie set back behind wide grass verges and small greens. Further south are late 19th Century terraces, and the Workhouse (now converted to flats).
Between South End and Bedale Beck, narrow hedged garden plots stretch down to the river. These gardens are a characteristic medieval feature of this part of the conservation area. Bridge Street is recent, in historic terms, and it clearly cuts diagonally across the established grain of the town provided by the pattern of plots to the rear of Market Place. This disruption has resulted in an irregular pattern of development, characterised by sheds and workshops, chapels and the Auction Mart, now a car park.
3. Bedale Park
Bedale Park began as a medieval deer park, with the landscaped park being created in the early 18th Century. Most of the park is now used as the Bedale Golf Course. Long Walk follows the line of the old Lancaster Road which was closed when the Inn was joined to the Hall. The park marks the sudden transition from country to town. Bedale Hall was remodelled in the 1730's when the fine ballroom and north front were built. The stable and estate buildings facing the park were given polite architectural facades to disguise their utilitarian purpose. The park contains many mature trees, and within one clump lies an icehouse. South-west of the estate yard lies the former walled kitchen garden, containing Bedale Manor, built c1956 and designed by Basil Spence, architect of Coventry Cathedral. Bedale Hall closes the view from the south, by pinching in the gap in the street at the north end of the town. Until the 1950's, this gap was much tighter, with the eastern walled boundary of the park closing the view from the south. In the 1950's, the main road was realigned and much of the wall was demolished. Thus the parkland at the Hall was opened up to public view, and the relationship of the Hall grounds to the town greatly altered. A stretch of former park wall can still be seen outside the church.
4. The Parish Church Area
The tower of Bedale Church is a prominent landmark both within the town and from the surrounding countryside. Entering Bedale from the north, the tower signals the entrance to the town. The Churchyard falls to the Bedale Beck, and the Old Rectory lies to the south-east in extensive wooded grounds, bounded by the waterside meadows to the east. These green areas form an attractive setting for the church and the buildings of the conservation area, viewed from the Back Lane area of Aiskew. North of the Church stands a house called 'St Gregory', built around 1700 and notable for its brick detailing. This house was reputably the first brick built house in the town.
5. Emgate
Emgate is the ancient route from the Market Place to the river crossing - originally a ford. The street narrows near the Market Place, but widens out towards the river. Emgate is lined with small cottages, of brick, stone and cobble, forming continuously built up but varied frontages. The pattern of short garden plots runs back north and south of the street, to terminate at back lanes which are lined with sheds and workshops. Emgate in Hird's time was the "low" end of town where the local industries of weaving, dyeing, cloth fulling and tanning were found.
Wycar contains a series of open spaces extending from The Wynd to Sussex Street. The mature trees and the 19th Century pumphouse make the Wycar Green an attractive area with the bowling green to the south and hedged gardens beyond. The 1786 map of Bedale shows a larger open triangular area with three encroachments at its south side. These now contain the Dales Health Centre, on the site of Bucktrout Firth's Workshop, Samwaies Court on the site of the Hospital of 1698, endowed by Peter Samwaies, Rector of Bedale to care for 'six old men', and a small encroachment now containing an extended cottage, Throstle Nest Cottage. Small cottages were commonly built around the edges of greens from the 17th Century, and while the present cottage is more recent the site is classic ‘squatter' location.
By 1839, the Bowling Green had appeared at Wycar, although not described as such on the map, of that date. West of Wycar Green, backing onto Bedale Park is a group of late 19th Century or early 20th Century villas in domestic revival styles. One of the most distinctive of these houses was built as the grammar school, (originally founded in 1588).
The Old Grammar School (now a private dwelling) was built in 1888 in Tudor style, an acknowledgment to Queen Elizabeth who made an endowment of £7.11s.4d in 1588 to re-establish the original Grammar School
7. Beckside and The Harbour
A riverside path runs from Bedale Bridge to beyond the Harbour, allowing views over the back gardens of South End and the allotments and meadows of the Aiskew bank. This area was improved in the 18th and 19th Centuries with the building of the Harbour around 1768, an attempt to make the Swale navigable. Bedale Bridge was rebuilt in 1740 and in 1828, while in 1839-40 adjacent land was drained, the banks strengthened and the Beck widened. The drained land was let to the poor of Bedale and Aiskew and the bankside became a walk between the bridge and the harbour. Along side the bridge is the Leech house, built in the 18th Century, and now standing in a recreated physic garden. East of the Beck beyond the allotments is the Wensleydale railway which was built in stages from 1846, and arrived at Bedale station (actually in Aiskew) in 1855. The massive retaining wall of the west side of the goods yard almost touches Aiskew Mill before the railway swings away to the north east.
Buildings
The main impression of Bedale is of a brick built town, of mostly Georgian buildings. The houses along the west side
of Market Place are perhaps most characteristic. These are of three storeys, with variations in eaves height of up to four feet, and similar variations in ridge level. These differences in height combine to give a fretted roofscape of pleasing variety.
Most of the taller houses have squat shallow attic storey windows with keystones, and brick dentilled eaves, characteristic of most of the 18th Century houses. Many were converted to shops and retain fine 19th Century shop fronts.
There are few visible signs of older domestic buildings in the town, although Nos 25-29 North End contain l6c timber framing and traces of a jettied crosswing. The most important listed buildings in the town are the Church of St Gregory (Grade 1), Bedale Hall (Grade 1), the Market Cross (Grade 1), and the Town Hall (Grade II).
Church of St Gregory
Mostly a 13th and 19th Century building with a small remnant of a 9th Century Saxon Church which survived William the Conqueror’s harrying of the North. The early 14th Century tower is probably the best example of a fortified church tower in the country. It was built to withstand Scottish raiding parties and the slot for the portcullis may still be seen. There is a fireplace and guardrobe (toilet) in the floor above. The church’s great patron in the middle ages was Brian FitzAlan, the Lord of Bedale and Custodian of Scotland under his friend, King Edward I. His fine effigy, one of the earliest known alabaster monuments, lies next to his wife at the north-western end of the nave.
The Market Cross
The fourteenth Century stone Market Cross, standing on its stepped octagonal base lies at the junction of Market Place with Emgate and The Wynd, and occupies a very important position in the townscape.
Bedale Hall
Bedale Hall presents its domestic brick elevations towards the town and its polite, architectural facade towards the park. These elevations appear to be of stone, but in fact only the entrance porch under its triangular pediment is of stone, the remainder being rendered.
To the west of the Hall lie groups of estate buildings along the edge of the park. These brick buildings have been carefully designed to present a polite architectural facade to the park, concealing their utilitarian purpose.
The Town Hall
The early 19th Century Town Hall makes little impact on the street scene, apart from the very large 4 pane sash windows at first floor level. However, to the rear the large late 19th Century Assembly Room in orange brick with a slate hipped roof is a prominent feature in the townscape, being clearly visible from Aiskew and the allotments.