Earlier this year, Secret Britain published a piece on overlooked market towns, including Bedale North Yorkshire, and the area around Leeming Bar. A reader from Leeming Bar wrote back to tell us what we had missed. This is what she told us.
A few months ago, Secret Britain published a piece on overlooked market towns across North Yorkshire. We covered several places, including the area around Bedale and Leeming Bar. The research took time. The writing was confident. And some of it was wrong.
Claire Jarmain, who runs The Roost Retreat at Leeming Bar, read the article. She could have left a comment. She could have ignored us entirely. Instead, she wrote us a careful email, corrected three separate mistakes, and then spent several paragraphs describing the town she lives in with the kind of detail that only comes from years of actually being there.
The Buck Inn, she pointed out, sits in Thornton Watlass, not Bedale itself. The Wensleydale Railway information we included about Northallerton was inaccurate. And we had missed Hansom, a Michelin Guide-listed restaurant that chef-owner Ruth Hansom runs in the town, entirely. Three corrections. All of them are right. Delivered without complaint, with a generosity that most people would not have bothered with.
This is the article we should have written the first time, made possible by Claire’s email.
Location: Bedale and Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, DL7 and DL8
Best for: Local history, heritage railways, independent food and drink, walking, short breaks
Getting there: Train to Northallerton from London King’s Cross direct with LNER, then approximately 6 miles by taxi or local bus. By road: leave the A1(M) at junction 51, 2 miles to Leeming Bar.
Open: The town is always accessible. Wensleydale Railway seasonal — check wensleydalerailway.com for current timetables before visiting.
The Story of Bedale
Credit – @CityTravelReview
Bedale sits at the edge of two worlds. To the east, the land flattens into the Vale of Mowbray, one of the widest and most productive farming valleys in northern England. To the west, the ground rises steadily through the foothills of the Pennines toward the dales. The town sits between them, and it has always been a place where goods and people in transit stopped for a night.
Henry III granted Bedale its market charter in 1251. The market square still holds the same weekly market, and the church of St Gregory stands above it largely unchanged since the 14th century. The tower is broad and low, built to serve as both a refuge and a watchtower when raids from the north were a real threat, not a historical abstraction. The ground-floor room of the tower was used to shelter people and livestock. You can still see the staircase that connected the refuge to the upper storeys.
What is far harder to see from the market square is what Bedale almost became. In the 19th century, local merchants and landowners pushed a plan to make Bedale Beck navigable from the River Swale, imagining a working inland waterway that would bypass the toll roads and move goods more cheaply by water. The project began. Ground was broken. Then the money ran out. Then the railway arrived at Leeming Bar in 1855, and the idea was abandoned before it was halfway finished. The excavated channel silted back up over the following decades. Bedale Beck still runs through the town today, but there is nothing left to show that anyone once intended it to carry barges.
The town’s other overlooked history sits on its own streets. The Leech House, a small stone structure near the marketplace, was where local apothecaries stored and sold medicinal leeches. This was not an eccentricity: leeches were a standard medical tool through the 18th and into the 19th century, used in bloodletting treatments that physicians across Europe prescribed without question. Bedale had sufficient trade in them to justify a dedicated building. That building still stands.
Bedale Town Centre
The market square is the obvious starting point, but Bedale’s high street rewards a longer look. The town has held on to a range of independent traders that most market towns of similar size have lost to chain stores and empty units. Ballantyne’s Chocolate Shop, Dovetail Interiors, Cockburn’s Craft Butchers, House and Home, Thomas the Baker’s, Miss Havisham’s Bookshop, Silverdale Jewellers, Nickery Nook cards and gifts, and Solemates Shoe Shop all trade from the town centre. These are working businesses that serve local people week in and week out, not a curated collection of gift shops aimed at visitors.
At North End, opposite the church, Bedale Hall stands at the end of a formal approach and contains both the Tourist Information Centre and Bedale Museum. The Ballroom’s Rococo plasterwork is one of the more surprising interiors in North Yorkshire, and most people who visit the town never see it.
Bedale North Yorkshire, and the Railway That Refused to Die
The Wensleydale Railway leaves from Leeming Bar and runs west through the dale toward Leyburn. It is a volunteer-operated heritage railway and one of the few remaining working lines in northern England, and for passengers without a car, it is also the only practical way to travel into Wensleydale from the east.
Our original article inaccurately described the railway’s connection to Northallerton. Claire’s correction was precise: the operational section of the Wensleydale Railway runs between Leeming Bar in the east and Leyburn in the west. The railway hopes to reopen the section between Leyburn and Redmire by 2027 or 2028. Leeming Bar station, on the edge of the village, is the eastern terminus and the starting point for passengers. Northallerton has a mainline station, but the Wensleydale Railway and Northallerton station are two separate things. Travellers arriving by LNER train into Northallerton need to make their way to Leeming Bar by taxi or local bus before boarding the heritage line. On Wednesdays and special event days, the line runs to the beautifully restored Edwardian station at Scruton.
From Leeming Bar station, the train moves west through open farmland. The landscape does not rush. Wide fields give way to stone walls and the first visible signs of the escarpment, and by the time the train reaches Leyburn, the hills have closed in on both sides. Passengers with an ear for quiet on a midweek morning in autumn will hear almost nothing but the sound of the engine and the occasional call of a bird of prey overhead. This is not a theme park railway. The Dale is the destination. There are station cafes at Leeming Bar (in a 1990s Inter-City 1st Class carriage), Bedale and Leyburn.
For walkers who want to extend beyond the railway itself, the hidden dales in North Yorkshire that the tourist coaches never reach cover the country east and west of the Wensleydale line in detail.
Current timetables and seasonal running dates are available on the Wensleydale Railway. Always check before travelling.
Gin from the Vale of Mowbray
At Coneygarth Way, less than a mile from Leeming Bar, Masons of Yorkshire produces what has become one of the most widely recognised gins made in the north of England. The distillery uses Yorkshire barley and draws its water from local sources. Tours run through the production facility and finish in the tasting room, where visitors can work through the core range alongside seasonal and limited expressions.
Masons chose this location deliberately. The Vale of Mowbray has been an agricultural landscape for centuries, and the same land that once supplied the old breweries in and around the town, including the historical operation connected to Plews Brewery, now supplies the still. The Mattison Foundry, which operated locally and produced ironwork for the agricultural estates of the vale, is part of the same long tradition of small-scale local production that still runs through this stretch of North Yorkshire, even if the specific outputs have changed.
The continuity is the point. What you taste in a Mason’s gin is, in a real sense, the same field it has always been.
Around Leeming Bar
Braithwaites Garden Centre is a family-run operation in Leeming Bar with a serious range of bedding plants, indoor plants, herbaceous trees, gardening equipment and pots. The Bloom Cafe inside the centre serves homemade cakes, scones, breakfast and light lunches, and tends to be quieter than cafes in the town centre on weekday mornings.
Simply Dutch, on the edge of the village, stocks furniture, gifts, wine, antiques, and vintage items, with a cafe inside. It is the kind of place that is genuinely difficult to describe and considerably easier to just go and see.
A mile north of Leeming Bar heading toward Northallerton, Spring House Farm Shop is run by Mark and Karen Gatenby and concentrates on local produce: Yorkshire meats and sausages, poultry, cheese, vegetables, and baked goods. The chocolate roulade has a reputation that extends well beyond the immediate area.
Where to Eat: Hansom, Bedale
Hansom holds a listing in the Michelin Guide. Chef-owner Ruth Hansom runs the kitchen. The food is grounded in produce from the surrounding countryside, which in the Vale of Mowbray means dairy, lamb, game, and vegetables that change with the season, rather than arriving from a central distribution warehouse.
This was one of the three corrections Claire flagged. She was right. A Michelin Guide listing in a market town of this scale is not something to miss. If you are making a day trip to Bedale or staying locally, book a table before you travel. Restaurants of this quality in smaller towns fill faster than visitors from cities expect.
Further into the countryside, the Buck Inn at Thornton Watlass is worth the short detour. Thornton Watlass is a village approximately three miles south-west of Bedale. The pub sits on the village green, which is one of the more complete examples of a traditional English village green arrangement in North Yorkshire. Note the address: Thornton Watlass, not Bedale. This was the second error Claire corrected in our original article, and it matters if you are navigating.
Off the Rails sits opposite Bedale railway station and serves food and drink with a relaxed, unpretentious approach that suits the area well. It is a practical stop before or after a journey on the Wensleydale Railway, and is worth knowing about if you are spending time in the village rather than passing through.
For straightforward pub food done well, the Old Black Swan in Bedale’s Market Place has a reputation among locals that tends to outlast trends. It is the kind of place that has been feeding people properly for a long time without needing to announce it.
Where to Stay: The Roost Retreat, Leeming Bar
The Roost Retreat is the reason this article exists in its current form.
Claire Jarmain runs the accommodation at Leeming Bar. She is the person who read our original article, sat down, and wrote the email that corrected what we had wrong and described what we had missed entirely. She did this without being asked, without expectation, and with a level of local knowledge that most published travel writing about North Yorkshire does not come close to.
The Roost Retreat offers annexe accommodation sleeping two guests, with a four-poster bed, separate kitchenette, private off-road parking, garden, outdoor seating, and a barbecue. The standard of detail in the fitting-out reflects the care Claire takes with guests. The attention to what is actually in the room rather than what merely fills it: these are the choices of someone who thinks about how people actually stay somewhere, not how a room looks in a photograph.
Leeming Bar is not a destination most visitors choose deliberately. It sits at a junction between the A1 and the roads heading west into the dales, and most people drive through it. Claire is the kind of host who gives you a reason to stop.
Book directly at theroostretreat.co.uk. Follow The Roost Retreat on Instagram to see the rooms, or find them on Facebook.
For anyone planning to walk the nearby rivers, our roundup of “River walks along the Swale, Ure and Nidd worth a full day” gives you routes in every direction from here.
Worth Knowing
- The Bedale Heritage Trail connects the market square to several of the town’s older buildings, including the Leech House, the old coaching inn sites, and the area where the unfinished harbour works once began. Pick up a trail map from the tourist information point in town before you start.
- Leeming Bar takes its name from the Roman road that ran through this area. The modern A1 follows a similar alignment to the Roman route in several sections between the village and Catterick.
- Bedale market has run on Tuesdays since the charter of 1251. That is nearly 800 years of continuous trading on the same site, which puts most modern high streets in perspective.
- The church of St Gregory’s ground-floor refuge tower is one of the few surviving examples of a peel-style fortified church tower in North Yorkshire. Most comparable structures further north were either demolished or heavily rebuilt.
- The Mattison Foundry’s ironwork is still visible across the surrounding farmland in the form of estate gates, mileposts and field infrastructure. The old foundry itself is a Grade II Listed building in the centre of Leeming Bar and now houses a Pilates studio, a bathroom showroom, and a horticultural parts and repair shop, John H Gill’s. The words ‘Iron Foundry and Implement Works’ can still be seen across the front of the building.
Practical Tips
- Trains from London King’s Cross to Northallerton run direct with LNER. From Northallerton, Bedale is approximately 6 miles by taxi. Confirm local bus options at yorkshiretravel.net before travelling, as routes and frequency vary.
- The Wensleydale Railway timetable is seasonal. Always confirm at wensleydalerailway.com before planning travel on the heritage line.
- Masons of Yorkshire distillery tours require advance booking. Check masonsofyorkshire.com for current tour schedules and pricing before visiting.
- Bedale market square has parking on and adjacent to the square itself. Tuesday is market day, and space fills before 9am. Arriving before market opens or after 2pm avoids the busiest period.
- The Bedale Heritage Trail is flat throughout and takes approximately 90 minutes on foot. No specialist footwear needed unless the rain has been heavy.
- Book a table at Hansom’s Restaurant in advance. Walk-in availability at weekends is limited.
Responsible Visiting
Bedale manages regular visitor traffic without difficulty, but it is more of a working market town rather than a tourist destination. Use the designated car parks rather than residential streets near the church. If you visit on a Tuesday, buy from the market rather than photographing it. The stalls have been there since 1251 because people in the town use them.
Reader Q&A
Is Bedale worth visiting for a day trip from York or Harrogate? Yes. Bedale is 35 minutes from Harrogate and approximately 50 minutes from York by car. The Wensleydale Railway, the Masons of Yorkshire distillery, and the Hansom restaurant give you a complete day without needing to rush any of them.
Where exactly does the Wensleydale Railway depart from? Leeming Bar station, on the eastern side of the village. The railway does not depart from Northallerton. Northallerton is the nearest mainline station, but passengers need to travel from Northallerton to Leeming Bar by taxi or local bus before boarding the heritage line. The eastern terminus of the Wensleydale Railway is Leeming Bar. Check current timetables at wensleydalerailway.com.
Is the Hansom restaurant suitable for a special occasion? Yes. Hansom holds a Michelin Guide listing, and the kitchen is run by chef-owner Ruth Hansom. Book in advance and approach it as a destination meal rather than a casual stop. The restaurant works with seasonal produce from the surrounding area.
How do I contact The Roost Retreat to book? Book directly at theroostretreat.co.uk. Tel: 01677 632360. Email: stay@theroostretreat.co.uk. You can also find them on Instagram or on Facebook.
Bedale has been standing at this junction since the Normans drew the market boundaries, shaped by wool and water and the traffic moving north, and it gets on with things without waiting for anyone to notice.
