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

The trail can be followed using a leaflet available from the tourist information centre and by reading the recently-installed interpretation boards at points around the town.

Blue plaques will soon be seen on key buildings.

The boards use old and recent photographs to illustrate important points in the town’s history – from its mention in the Domesday 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 overlook 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.

It is one of several improvements that have been funded by Yorkshire Forward and English Heritage.

For more details, visit www.bedale.org.