Church of St Gregory, Bedale

The Church of St Gregory stands at the northern end of Bedale’s high street in North Yorkshire, beside Bedale Beck. A stone church has occupied the site since before the Domesday Book of 1086, though the present building mostly dates from the late 12th century. Restorations over eight centuries have left a Grade I listed structure with features from Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles. The tower, set to the west, was built in the 1330s as a defensive lookout with a portcullis to protect the town. The churchyard slopes down to the beck and is planted with yew trees, giving a quiet northern approach. Inside, visitors find a medieval image of left-handed St George fighting a dragon in St George’s Chapel. The crypt beneath the chancel holds two Anglo-Saxon stones carved with serpents and a human-headed serpent from the Temptation scene. A stone altar remains in the crypt, once used as a sacristy and later as a mausoleum. The Jervaulx Bell, one of England’s oldest ringable bells, was brought from Jervaulx Abbey in the 14th century and weighs over a tonne. Wall paintings uncovered in the 1920s show The Creed and The Lord’s Prayer above the nave, covered during the Reformation. The Lady Chapel in the south aisle contains the east window from Jervaulx Abbey, a rare William Wailes creation. Effigies of knights and clergy lie in the north chapel and tower, including Bryan FitzAlan and Brian de Thornhill. The 18th-century conjurer Gustavus Katterfelto is buried near the altar. The church’s strong proportions and fine crypt earned it a place in Simon Jenkins’s England’s Thousand Best Churches.