Bedale
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Bedale is a small market town in North Yorkshire, England, at the foot of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales.
The post-Conquest town was founded by Scollandus, an official in residence at Richmond Castle. This is the site of a castle built in the reign of King Edward I of England, by the son of the Duke of Brittany; Bryan FitzAlan, Baron Bedale. Bryan was Lord-Lieutenant(viceroy) of Scotland, for His Majesty the King of England and Wales, Edward the Longshanks. 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. Bryan himself was related to the forthcoming House of Stuart whose origins were in Dinan, Pays de Dol, Brittany and gaining steady power in Scotland, Arundel, Norfolk and Ireland as magistrates and mostly under the name FitzAlan. This Lord also built Askham Bryan in the city of York.
Bedale St. Gregory is the parish church in the Church of England and its deanery is in Wensley, being within the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds. 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 Leyburn. The Thorpe Perrow Arboretum lies nearby, as do the towns of Burneston, Burrill-cum-Cowling, Exelby and Firby.