Bedale

The post-Conquest town was founded by Scollandus, a 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 KG was a conspirator in the assassination of Piers Gaveston. Bedale had traditionally been a Lancastrian area, until the Kingmaker, Clarence and 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, Sheffield, Warren (Earl of Surrey), Brian de 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).

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 ice house used for preserving food, and the fourteenth century market cross. Bedale is home to a small museum, numerous Georgian buildings, and a 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.