Photo: Niki Walton · CC BY-SA 2.0Porthtowan is home to a World Heritage Site: Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
Historic England lists 3 buildings inside Porthtowan’s built-up area, 34 for every 10,000 residents. 23% of its homes were built before 1919.
Where Porthtowan’s history is
Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park.
Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.
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.
3 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 3 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z
Monuments, parks and gardens
Designations that overlap the town by a tenth of their area or half a hectare.
World Heritage
| Cornwall and West Devon Mining LandscapeUNESCO World Heritage Site, partly or wholly inside the town |
23% of Porthtowan’s homes were built before 1919
Every home by when it was built, from council tax records, against England & Wales (the dark tick).
21% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1973–82, which added 14% 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 (10 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.
Listed buildings in the places around Porthtowan
| Town | People | Listed | Grade I | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porthtowan | 894 | 3 | 0 | — |
| Mount Hawke | 1,593 | 5 | 0 | C+ |
| St Agnes | 3,253 | 77 | 0 | A+ |
| Portreath | 1,218 | 8 | 0 | B |
| Redruth | 15,455 | 80 | 0 | A |
| Illogan | 1,096 | 0 | 0 | D− |
| Pool and Illogan | 8,588 | 43 | 0 | A− |
| St Day | 1,432 | 32 | 0 | A |
Porthtowan in brief
Part of Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a World Heritage Site, lies in Porthtowan. All told, the list holds 3 listed buildings. Its housing is old: 23% of homes date from before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. Beyond that, all its entries went on the list in 1988.
Questions about Porthtowan’s history
How many listed buildings are there in Porthtowan?
Historic England lists 3 buildings inside Porthtowan’s built-up area: 0 Grade I, 0 Grade II* and 3 Grade II.
Is Porthtowan a World Heritage Site?
Porthtowan is home to part or all of Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, inscribed by UNESCO.
How old are the homes in Porthtowan?
23% of homes were built before 1919 and 27% before 1940, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records (March 2025).
Porthtowan has no History Grade.
© 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. 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.