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'Bedale' is a small market town and civil parish in the district of Hambleton, North Yorkshire, England, at the foot of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales and is popular with tourists all year around but especially so in the summer months. It was originally in Richmondshire and listed in the Domesday Book as part of Catterick wapentake, which was split and Bedale became part of Hang (so named because of the many gallows used to execute captured Scots), then split again into East Hang.
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. The current incumbent of the church is Reverend David Paton-Williams. 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 landlords of Bedale, featuring coats of arms of these people or their families: Fitzalan, Stapleton, Grey of Rotherfield (related to Lady Jane Grey), Sheffield, de Warrene (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. When Scots raided the countryside, inhabitants expected to find security in the pele tower of St. Gregory's.
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 Thorp Perrow Arboretum lies nearby, as do the villages of Burneston, Burrill, Cowling, Exelby and Firby. The town is host to a plethora of local shops, pubs, and eateries all along its high street. It still holds a market every Tuesday on the cobbles that line the market place. It also has a leisure centre with full gym swimming pool, astro turf sports pitches. Bedale Athletic Sports Association club provides excellent football, cricket, hockey, squash and tennis. Bedale Golf Club is one of the finest golf courses in the local area and for the kids Big Sheep Little Cow Farm, and the Wensleydale railway are a firm favourite.

Contents

Local History

Lord Fitzalan of Bedal

External links

Local History

After being doled out by Count Alan Le Roux to Bodin of Middleham for a short time, the post-Harrying town was refounded by Scollandus, a Breton officer in hereditary station at Richmond Castle. This is the site of a castle built in the reign of King Edward I of England, by a relation to the Earl of Richmond; Bryan Fitzalan, Lord Fitzalan of Bedal. After contributing to the defeat of Llywelyn the Last, Fitz Alan succeeded the Earl of Surrey as Guardian and Keeper of Scotland for Edward I of England and fought at the Battle of Falkirk (1298). Fitz Alan was involved in a fight with William Wallace that led to the death of a comrade-in-arms[1] and held castles in the Scottish Lowlands (Dundee, Forfar, Roxburgh and Jedburgh). This baron also built Killerby Castle, and Askham Bryan in York.
Heir jure uxoris of Fitz Alan, Sir Gilbert de Stapleton was a conspirator in the assassination of Piers Gaveston. Miles Stapleton was a founding Knight of the Order of the Garter, who fought at the Siege of Calais and at the Battle of Crécy. The Stapletons were "Lollard knights". Bedale had traditionally been a Lancastrian area, until the Kingmaker, Clarence and Gloucester obtained Richmond and Middleham Castles. After the Battle of Bosworth Field, Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell led the charge of insurgency in the Yorkist 'Lovell-Stafford rebellion' against Henry VII of England, attainted Earl of Richmond. Residents were not pleased with the Tudors, whom like Charles VIII of France, had virtually annihilated the long-cherished palatine freedoms by outright annexation. Not only had the Tudors usurped the throne and the church for themselves, but had also usurped the Honour of Richmond, when it had legally belonged to the heirs of Alain Le Roux "for ever". The issues were confusing, since the Tudors were Welsh people and supported by the last independent Duke of Brittany, whom must have thought it pertinent to return England to native Britons and secure independence for Richmond from the King of France, which he could not do in his own primary fief of Brittany. The inhabitants of the region went on several recusancy strikes, such as the Pilgrimage of Grace and made trouble for John Nevill, 3rd Baron Latymer (Catherine Parr's husband before Henry VIII) in Snape Castle. This continued in the Rising of the North, with Henry VII's follower Simon Digby of Aiskew executed and replaced by Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick. Political climate changed during the English Civil War, when the local sentiment was Cavalier and Middleham was once again a fortress of political entrenchment.

Lord Fitzalan of Bedal

LORD FITZALAN OF BEDAL
Brian Fitzalan. The title became extinct in this family at his death 1305.
GREY, -- ---- 1305.
LORD GREY OF ROTHERFIELD.
John Grey. John, second lord Grey, succeeded to the title of baron Fitzalan of Bedal in right of Catherine, his wife, daughter of Brian. Fitzalan lord Fitzalan. The titles became extinct in this family upon the death of Robert, sixth lord Grey of Rotherfield, 14 January 1388.
DEINCOURT, -- ---- 1460.
LORD DEINCOURT.
Edmund Deincourt. John, fifth lord Deincourt, succeeded 1406 to the titles of baron Grey of Rotherfield and Fitzalan of Bedal in right of Joan, his wife, daughter of Robert Grey sixth lord Grey of Rotherfield. The titles became extinct in this family upon the death of William, sixth lord Deincourt, 1423.
LOVEL.
William, tenth lord Lovel, married Alice, daughter and heiress of John Deincourt lord Deincourt, in whose right he succeeded to the titles of baron Deincourt of Blankley in the county of Lincoln, baron Grey of Rutherfield in the county of Oxford, and baron Fitzalan of Bedal in the county of York. By this lady he had issue,
John, eleventh lord Lovel.
William
John, eleventh lord Lovel, adhered to the party of the house of Lancaster in the civil wars, and died 9 January 1464. Francis, twelfth lord Lovel, his son, was by king Edward the fourth 4 January 1483 created viscount Lovel. He was second in command under Richard duke of Gloucester afterwards king Richard the third, in his expedition into Scotland, and was the particular favourite and counsellor of that monarch. By king Richard he was constituted lord chamberlain of the houshold and chief butler of England. He fled to the continent after the battle of Bosworth; and returning in the affair of Lambert Simnel, was probably killed at the battle of Stoke 6 June 1487. His estate was confiscated by king Henry the seventh.

External links

★ Bedale in the Northern Echo

★ Map of businesses in Bedale

★ Bedale Golf Club

★ History of the Stapletons

★ Line of the Lords Fitzalan