Church Of Saint Gregory

Church of Saint Gregory

This is a Grade I listed church of significant medieval importance, located in Bedale. The building dates from the 13th, 15th and 19th centuries, constructed in sandstone, limestone, rubblestone and ashlar with slate and lead roofs.

The church comprises a west tower with south porch, a nave with north and south aisles, and a chancel with north vestry.

The five-stage tower dates from the 13th to 15th centuries and displays both Decorated and Perpendicular architectural styles. It features offset angle buttresses and a stair turret with five chamfered slit openings. On the left side are three two-light cusped arched windows with chamfered details and hoodmoulds. A stone band and clockface sit between the second and third windows. Above these are two two-light flat-headed belfry windows with cusped lights and hoodmoulds, with a small pilaster buttress positioned between them and on either side. Diagonally-set gargoyles mark the corners, while an embattled parapet with pinnacles sits at each corner and at the centre of each side. The west door is panelled, set within a doorway of two chamfered orders under a hoodmould with head stops. Above it stands a three-light window with Decorated tracery and hoodmoulds with head stops.

The south porch is gabled and features a chamfered pointed-arched doorway with hoodmould. An ogee-headed niche is positioned in the apex of the gable. The porch has a stone parapet and tile roof. Inside, a pointed tunnel vault with two chamfered ribs is covered by a 15th-century board door.

The nave is organised into four bays. The south aisle has offset angle buttresses, with the three left-hand bays constructed of rubble and containing 19th-century two-light Decorated windows with hoodmoulds. To the right is a chamfered pointed doorway with a tablet and sundial above it. The right-hand bay contains a flat-arched four-light window with hoodmould. The north aisle similarly has offset buttresses defining the bays. Its three left-hand bays contain 19th-century two-light windows with hoodmoulds, while the right-hand bay has a plain chamfered three-light window. A clerestory with flat-arched cusped three-light windows with hoodmoulds runs above. Both aisles and the clerestory have embattled parapets and lead roofs.

The chancel is lower than the nave and comprises two bays. An offset diagonal buttress is located to the east. The windows feature cusped two-light designs with cambered arches. The north side has a similar window with a small vestry below. The east window contains five cusped lights with 13th-century tracery and a hoodmould; it is recorded as having come from Jervaulx Abbey.

Interior Features

The tower vault contains eight ribs arranged around a ring for the bell hole. The north arcade is 13th-century work featuring piers of varying designs: the first is octagonal, the second quatrefoil with keeled foils, and the third cruciform with concave re-entrant angles. These piers display crocket and leaf-crocket capitals. A ballflower motif runs up the third pier and continues on all the arches, with hoodmoulds featuring a nutmeg motif. The south arcade is also 13th-century, with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. The east ends of both arcades form chapels to the outside of the chancel. The chancel arch is chamfered with stops. The roofs are 19th-century work.

A crypt beneath the chancel contains two rib vaults with double-chamfered ribs. In the chancel stands a sedilia featuring crocketed ogee arches on shafts with fillets. The crypt contains part of a late 9th-century round cross shaft decorated with plait and rope motifs, along with a carving of the Virgin Mary from the same period. Round altar wooden panels with profile hands in medallions date from around 1540, alongside 17th-century Dutch or Flemish panels. Two small figures of apostles date from the early 19th century.

Wall paintings include ornamental patterns on the chancel arch from the 13th century, and a depiction of Saint George and the Dragon on the north aisle wall from the 14th century.

Monuments include effigies of Sir Bryan Fitzalan and his wife from the early 15th century. His effigy is rendered in alabaster under a nodding ogee canopy, while hers is carved in stone. A 14th-century effigy of a priest stands in the north chapel. A memorial in black marble to Thomas Jackson, who died in 1529, is located in the north aisle.