54 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade II*

Church Gate HouseGrade II* listedKing's Arms HotelGrade II listedOdney ClubGrade II listedChurch of St John the BaptistGrade II listedCoombe Cottage Coombe End Cottage MooringsGrade II listed+4See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

c. 1890

1903

Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.

Historic England lists buildings in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of all listed buildings), Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.8%), and Grade II for buildings of special interest (about 91.7%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on the National Heritage List for England whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings.

Historic England’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 24 entries were listed in 1955. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.

Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.

23% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1955–64, which added 21% of today’s homes.

Valuation Office Agency, council tax stock of properties by build period, 31 March 2025, for the neighbourhoods (LSOAs) that make up the town, split by where their residents live. Homes with no recorded build period (93 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Thomas Powell

Helen Ferrers

Walter West

Ralph Douglas Binney

Noel Mason-Macfarlane

Frederick Hards

Stanley Spencer

Gilbert Spencer

Donald Clive Anderson

1800182518501875190019251950

Stanley Spencer1891–1959 · English painter (1891-1959)

Noel Mason-Macfarlane1889–1953 · British Army general (1889-1953)

Helen Ferrers1869–1943 · British actress (1869-1943)

WW

Walter West1885–1958 · British film director (1885-1958)

Thomas Powell1809–1887 · Missionary of the London Missionary Society in Samoa, and botanist (1…

FH

Frederick Hards1889–1963 · Aviator (1889-1963)

Gilbert Spencer1892–1979 · British painter (1892-1979)

DA

Donald Clive Anderson1897–1957 · English military consultant and historian (1897-1957)

Everyone born in Cookham → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

More of Cookham’s homes are old than in most places: 27% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. In all there are 54 listed buildings, including Church of Holy Trinity. Per resident, it has more listed heritage than 75% of UK towns. A conservation area protects part of it.

Most entries on the list, 70%, are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 9 people born here before 1900, the best known include Stanley Spencer (1891), Noel Mason-Macfarlane (1889) and Helen Ferrers (1869). The rest is about typical: like most towns its size, it has no Grade I building.