273 listed buildings, 4 of them Grade I

Peckover HouseGrade I listedOctavia Hill Birthplace Museum, 1 South Brink Place and 7 and 8 South BrinkGrade II* listedSmedley Canning FactoryGrade II listedAngles TheatreGrade II listedFormer Old Bell InnGrade II listed+21See 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. 1851

c. 1895

1908

c. 1914

1938

1938

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. Neighbourhood dots: the population-weighted centre of each Census 2021 output area, coloured by its neighbourhood’s (LSOA’s) share of homes built before 1919 (Valuation Office Agency, March 2025).

North Brink27 listed · 1 Grade I · 4 II*

Market Place20 listed · 1 II*

The Crescent12 listed · 1 II*

Old Market11 listed · 3 II*

South Brink8 listed · 1 II*

Union Place6 listed

Hill Street5 listed

North End5 listed

North Street5 listed · 1 II*

Ely Place4 listed

Norwich Road4 listed

High Street3 listed

Of the 273 entries, 139 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Search the rest on Historic England’s list →

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 1951, 4 of the 4 Grade I buildings among them. 110 came in 1983, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.

2 scheduled monuments

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

1 registered park or garden

Peckover HouseGrade II

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.

Joseph Medworth

William Godwin

Thomas Clarkson

John Clarkson

Charles Flinders Hursthouse

Robert Pate

Master Herbert

Alexander Peckover, 1st Baron Peckover

Henry Leslie

Valentine Blanchard

Priscilla Hannah Peckover

Miranda Hill

Octavia Hill

John Humphrey

William Digby

May Staveley

Agnes Metcalfe

Jack Eggett

Rudolph Anstead

175017751800182518501875190019251950

William Godwin1756–1836 · English journalist, political philosopher and novelist (1756–1836)

Octavia Hill1838–1912 · English social reformer (1838-1912)

Thomas Clarkson1760–1846 · English abolitionist (1760-1846)

Priscilla Hannah Peckover1833–1931 · English pacifist

JE

Jack Eggett1874–1943 · Association football player (1874-1943)

MH

Miranda Hill1836–1910 · British writer

John Humphrey1838–1914 · English American politician and attorney (1838–1914)

Agnes Metcalfe1870–1923 · British teacher, author and active suffragist

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

Measured per resident, Wisbech has more listed heritage than 85% of UK towns. In all there are 273 listed buildings, 4 of them Grade I, including Church of St Peter and St Paul. Only 23 of the 373 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Its older streets lie in 3 conservation areas, the first designated in 1992.

Most entries on the list, 71%, are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 19 people born here before 1900, the best known include William Godwin (1756), Octavia Hill (1838) and Thomas Clarkson (1760). Otherwise the figures are ordinary: it also has 2 scheduled monuments; and 16% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.