The Yorkshire market town most people ignore on a trip to the Dales

If you’ve heard of Bedale, it’s probably because you’ve passed it on the way to somewhere else. Or you live there.

Bedale is a couple of miles from the A1(M) which means you’ll pass along its wide Georgian high street on the way to Masham and the Nidderdale AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). And if you’re heading to Leyburn and the Yorkshire Dales you’ll miss it entirely.

This ancient market town isn’t as pretty as either neighbour although it’s all relative. Plonk North End/Market Place – Bedale’s main thoroughfare – in the middle of post-industrial South Yorkshire or West Yorkshire and it’ll be the prettiest high street for about 50 miles. Here in endlessly scenic North Yorkshire, it’s about average.

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While Masham (pronounced ‘mass-um’) and Leyburn have town centres which pre-date the concept of tourism, they are today very much geared towards visitors. Bedale is more of a ‘working town’.

Bedale has tearooms, restaurants and gift shops but they don’t dominate North End/Market Place. There’s a Nisa, a Costa and a nicely disguised Morrisons among the rows of independent shops and pubs.

Holiday accommodation and second homes aren’t in short supply in Bedale but they haven’t priced out the locals...yet. A three-bedroom semi-detached house with front and back gardens costs around £250,000. A four-bedroom detached house with a double garage costs around £400,000. By North Yorkshire standards, that’s affordable.

Emma Shevel runs Silverdale, a jewellery shop on North End, with her sister Helen. “The value of the second homes hasn’t destroyed the local community,” says Emma who lives in Bedale. Helen remembers how the community proved its strength during the Covid pandemic.

She says: “People genuinely cared about how we were getting on. It wasn’t just a mundane ‘how are you doing?’” So is Bedale a local place for local people? Yes, but it also welcomes thousands of tourists every summer. And I say ‘welcome’ because it’s a very friendly place.

Property valuer Alison Kent, who works for estate agent George F White, says: “Everyone says Bedale has a very friendly community and it’s where people walk up and down the street and say hello to each other.

“Everyone I’ve dealt with has been friendly and appreciative about what we do.” For those who don’t live in Bedale – but fancy a taste of it – there’s plenty to tempt you.

Bedale Museum, inside grade I-listed Bedale Hall, details the history of the town for which Henry III granted a market charter in 1251. Unfortunately, it was closed when we visited. Boo.

Across the road is St Gregory’s Church a grade I-listed church with a tower dating back to the same century. This substantial church has an impressive collection of stained glass windows – and teddy bears sitting on its pews.

The juvenile among you will be amused by a memorial mentioning an ‘Admiral Sir John Poo Beresford’. I thought it had been vandalised but no, that was his name. I hope his passing was marked with a 21-flush salute.

Most curious still is the Leech House on the east bank of Bedale Beck. What looks like an outhouse was in fact, where ‘medicinal’ leeches were stored in containers fed by the beck. The leeches were sold to pharmacists who at the time mistakenly believed leeches could cure all sorts of ailments by sucking away ‘bad blood’.

Today the only surviving leech house in the UK is mercifully, devoid of leeches. It is however, quite a site with its crenelated walls, pointy door and windows and its precarious position next to the beck. Whoever built it must have had a sense of humour. Perhaps he was subtly mocking his gullible clientele.

A couple of miles south of Bedale is the Thorp Perrow estate which has 100 acres of landscaped gardens and a bird of prey and exotic mammals centre. So, Bedale is a working town – and we like ‘authenticity’ – with enough to satisfying curiosity-hungry visitors.

In August 2016, North Yorkshire County Council opened a £35m road bypassing Bedale and neighbouring Aiskew and Leeming Bar. Those on the way to the Dales bypassed Bedale although it made traffic on North End/Market Place bearable again.

A road doesn’t choose where it goes but you’re a person, not a road. So next time you’re Dales-bound, don’t bypass Bedale.