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.
Building Materials
The earliest records of the use of building materials are 15th Century accounts which refer to timber framed buildings, using posts, sills and studs, and often built on stone footings. They refer to loads of clay for daub infil to timber framing. Many buildings were thatched and others had roofs of Harmby slates.
Many 'wood and mortar' houses survived until the 18th Century, and were noted by Hird. Many of these by then were cottages, thatched or stoneslate roofed and glazed with 'diamond squares'. After 1700, brick and pantile displaced timber framing and thatch. The remodelling of Bedale Hall and the growth of the town's professional and middle class encouraged improvements, whereby the old Tollbooth and cottages in the Market Place were pulled down and the elegant three storey brick houses south of the Hall constructed. A brickyard was set up in Bedale Park in 1776 to provide bricks for the Bedale Estate.
There are few accounts of the rebuilding of Bedale in the 18th Century, but Hird records how one house at the end of Emgate built in 1707 was rebuilt in 1827 when its thatched roof was replaced by tiles. The low rooms were remodelled and the leaded windows replaced with sashes. The walls of the house were rendered and outbuildings built. Cobbles, taken from the nearby fields and river bed are a common walling material particularly for garden walls, rear wails of buildings and outbuildings. Cobbled walls and paving are a characteristic feature of backland areas and buildings in Bedale. The cobbles are laid in courses, with levelling courses of thin stone slabs or dressed rubble blocks every fifth course or so. Where used on front elevations, cobbled walls are usually rendered in lime mortar. Examples can be seen in North End and Wycar.
A small number of cottages in Emgate and off Wycar are built of small magnesian limestone blocks, while a few more important buildings, notably Mowbray Grange built c1840 are also constructed of magnesian limestone. High quality ashlar stone is rare, largely confined to the entrance block to Bedale Hall ballroom and one or two other buildings in the main street. After the 1940s, many buildings in the town centre were re-roofed in concrete tiles, to the detriment of the overall character of the town.
