This unassuming little building is thought to have been a leech house. Leeches were stored here, using water from the beck to keep them clean/alive until one of the local doctors sent for some for a blood letting. In the small market town of Bedale in North Yorkshire, it stopped being used in the early 1900s.
I don’t think I would be too keen on having them on me but I believe they are still used occasionally in some surgery – as are maggots, which I find even more stomach churning.
—Stephen—
Stephen G Hipperson 