132 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I

Church of St PetrocGrade I listedAbbey HouseGrade II* listedDairy and GrottoGrade II* listedFootbridge over Lane to Estate Yard and Flanking Walls Forming North End of Mock Fortifications to North East of Prideaux PlaceGrade II* listedGarden Feature at South End of South Terrace of Prideaux PlaceGrade II* listed+6See 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. 1889

c. 1940

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.

Of the 132 entries, 30 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

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 16 entries were listed in 1953, 2 of the 2 Grade I buildings among them. 111 came in 1988, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have 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

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.

20% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1983–92, which added 13% 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 (11 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

For its size, Padstow has more listed heritage than 95% of UK towns. In all there are 132 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I. Of its homes, 24% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. Only 34 of the 1,376 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings.

A conservation area has protected part of it since 1974. Of the whole list, 63% are houses, terraces and villas. More than half went on the list in a single year, 1988: 111 of 132. The rest is about typical: it also has 2 scheduled monuments.