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.
6. Wycar
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.
