Moretons Charity Almshouses · Photo: Hugh Venables · CC BY-SA 2.0

History of Cottenham · Historic England

66 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I

On the Historic England list, all of them stand inside Cottenham’s built-up area, 107 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 1 scheduled monument. We have photos of 6 of its listed buildings. 15% of its homes were built before 1919. Cottenham grades B+ for history: #10 of 50 in Cambridgeshire.

1Grade I 1scheduled monument 34on High Street

Listed buildings

107 per 10,000 residents

Grade I

exceptional interest

Grade II*

more than special interest

Scheduled monuments

nationally important sites

Homes built before 1919

15%

typical UK town 15%

In pictures

Cottenham in 6 photos

Nearly every Grade I and II* building, photographed. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.

Church of All SaintsGrade I listed

Chequers Public HouseGrade II listed

Pond FarmhouseGrade II listed

The LimesGrade II listed

White CottageGrade II listed+1See 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.

The map

Where Cottenham’s history is

Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park.

Grade IScheduled monument

0 of 4neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 42% were built before 1919.

Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.

66 listed buildings by grade

1 Grade I0 Grade II*65 Grade II

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.

Grade I

The Grade I listed building in Cottenham

Buildings of exceptional interest, about 2.5% of all listed buildings. Every one is photographed. Each opens its own page, with the official list entry.

Church · listed 1962Church of All SaintsPhoto: Dazzag · CC BY-SA 3.0

What’s protected

Most of Cottenham’s listed buildings are homes

Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.

Houses, terraces & villas58

Inns, shops & warehouses2

Churches, chapels & priories2

Public & civic buildings2

Walls, gates & bridges1

Memorials, crosses & tombs1

58 entries (88%) are houses, terraces and villas. 2 are churches, chapels and priories, including 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings.

Buildings are sorted by words in each entry’s name (church, gate, inn, memorial…): the list’s open data has no building type. An entry named only by its address counts as a house.

Grade II

65 Grade II listed buildings

Most listed buildings are in this grade, which covers buildings of special interest. Open any building to read its official list entry.

All 65 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z

Abletts House Barn, At Rear of Number 87 Barn, Rear of Number 344 (Manor Farmhouse)Barns, Rear of Number 343 Chequers Public House Dorset House Fenway Gig House and Stables Gothic House King Smith Cottage Mitchell House Moretons Charity Almshouses Oaslands Office, Adjoining Number 86 Old Meeting Baptist Church Olde Thatch Pelham House Pond Farmhouse Rose Villa Sunnyholme The Limes The Lindens The Old Rectory Tower Mill Wall, Gates and Gatepiers Number 185 War Memorial White Cottage 1, High Street 10, High Street 101, High Street 11, High Street 13, High Street 135, High Street 160, High Street 17, Corbett Street 188, High Street 191 and 193, High Street 214, High Street 218, High Street 219 and 221, High Street 226 and 228, High Street 279, High Street 28, High Street 284, High Street 29, High Street 290, High Street 30, High Street 307, High Street 309, High Street 316, High Street 318, High Street 32, High Street 324, High Street 331, High Street 332, High Street 337 and 339, High Street 35, High Street 41, Denmark Road 41, High Street 44, Corbett Street 52, High Street 56, Denmark Road 60, High Street 7, High Street 86, High Street

Conservation areas

1 conservation area covers 22% of Cottenham

Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.

Cottenham 197246 ha

46 hain conservation areas, of 210 ha inside the built-up area.

64 of the 66 listed buildings stand in one.

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.

How the list grew

More than half of Cottenham’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1984

The year each building now on the list was first listed.

1984 · 57

19501960197019801990200020102020

The first 2 entries were listed in 1962, 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings among them. 57 came in 1984, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.

Monuments & landscapes

Monuments, parks and gardens

Designations that overlap the town by a tenth of their area or half a hectare.

1 scheduled monument

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Secretary of State, advised by Historic England.

Cottenham moated site

History Grade

Cottenham grades B+ for history

Protected heritage and the age of the town’s homes, against all UK towns.

Protected heritage, for its size and in all (70 points, 114 per 10,000 residents)More than 77% of UK towns

Homes built before 1919 (15%)More than 45% of UK towns

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.

Towns its size

Cottenham has the 88th most Grade I buildings of 867 towns its size

Places of 4,000–10,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.

Cottenham1

#161 of 867for listed buildings per resident (107 per 10,000). Sandwich, Tenby and Brecon lead.

87 have more. The typical town its size has 0.

Neighbours

Listed buildings in the places around Cottenham

Town	People	Listed	Grade I	History
Cottenham	6,156	66	1	B⁺
Histon and Impington	7,781	37	3	B⁻
Oakington	1,494	6	0	C
Willingham	3,912	32	1	B
Waterbeach	5,375	16	0	C
Longstanton and Northstowe	5,278	12	1	C⁻
Milton	4,150	16	0	C
Girton	4,384	12	0	C⁻

In brief

Cottenham in brief

Per resident, Cottenham has more listed heritage than 77% of UK towns. All told, the list holds 66 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I, including Church of All Saints. Only 87 of the 867 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. On High Street alone there are 34 listed buildings.

A conservation area has protected part of it since 1972. Most entries on the list, 88%, are houses, terraces and villas. The big year was 1984, when 57 of the 66 went on the list. The rest is about typical: Thomas Tenison (1636) was born here before 1900; it also has a scheduled monument; and 15% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.

Questions about Cottenham’s history

How many listed buildings are there in Cottenham?

Historic England lists 66 buildings inside Cottenham’s built-up area: 1 Grade I, 0 Grade II* and 65 Grade II.

What are the Grade I listed buildings in Cottenham?

One: Church of All Saints.

Are there scheduled monuments in Cottenham?

Yes, 1 scheduled monument, including Cottenham moated site.

How many conservation areas are there in Cottenham?

1, covering about 46 hectares of the town. The largest is Cottenham.

When were Cottenham’s buildings listed?

The first in 1962; the most, 57, in 1984.

How old are the homes in Cottenham?

15% of homes were built before 1919 and 21% before 1940, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records (March 2025).

© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The National Heritage List for England is the official, up-to-date register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites in England; check an entry on Historic England’s website before relying on it.

Sources: Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only · Historic England conservation areas (supplied by local planning authorities; October 2026). All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.