BEDALE is celebrating its history with the launch of a new heritage trail.

The trail can be followed using a leaflet available from the Tourist Information Centre and reading the recently-installed interpretation boards at significant points around the town.

And blue plaques will soon be seen on key buildings.

The interpretation boards use old and recent photos to illustrate important points in the town’s long history - from its mention in the Doomsday Book of 1086, through its Georgian heyday to the coming of the railways.

There are six boards in total, the one in the town centre, placed to look down the Market Place is already proving popular.

The others are at the Railway, Wycar, the Harbour, the Leech House and Bedale Hall.

Yvonne Rose, chairwoman of the town’s Chamber of Trade and Tourism, said: “Every time I go past the hall, there are people looking at the board, comparing the old photos with how the Market Place looks now.

“The blue plaques will remind us that we used to have a Workhouse as well as a Town Hall, which became the Assembly Rooms.

“We are still deciding where to put the plaque for Robert Hird, who wrote the Annals of Bedale.

“He lived in Emgate all his life, but the records are somewhat ambiguous about exactly which house was his."

The heritage trail was a project that came out of the Bedale Renaissance Charter 2004 and is one of several public realm improvements that have been funded by Yorkshire Forward and English Heritage through the Heritage Partnership Scheme.

For more details, visit bedale.org