What is recorded here
Bedale Leech House is a rare small building made to keep medicinal leeches alive for an apothecary when bloodletting was common treatment.
Why it was built
A local apothecary built the little brick house in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century to store live leeches securely.
People and work
Collectors gathered the animals, the apothecary kept and sold them, and doctors used them for bloodletting during its peak in the early 1800s.
How it changed
Its medical use ended as demand for leeches fell around 1900, and the neglected building was restored in 1985.
What survives
The round brick room, pointed doorway, small fireplace and water supply beside Bedale Beck survive in a garden.
Why it mattered
It matters because this unique working building makes a once-common but now unfamiliar part of everyday medicine easy to understand.
Sources for this account
Sources checked 16 August 2026.
From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) w1218867892
Places near here
Picture notes
- Paul Brooker, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- John Sutton, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Computer-made picture. It does not show this playground.
- JThomas, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Computer-made picture. It does not show this monument.
- Chris Heaton, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Oliver Dixon, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Computer-made picture. It does not show this mountain top.
- Anthony Harrison, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Gordon Hatton, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
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