Cockfield: 56% of homes built before 1919

Church of St. MaryGrade II* listed

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.

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.

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.

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.

42% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1900–18, 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 (0 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Jeremiah Dixon

Robert Dixon

John White

170017501800185019001950

Jeremiah Dixon1733–1779 · English surveyor and astronomer (1733–1779)

Robert Dixon1800–1858 · Australian surveyor and explorer (1800–1858)

JW

John White1826–1891 · English-born scholar of Maori language and culture (1826-1891)

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

Old houses are part of Cockfield’s character: 56% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 8 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 2001. Jeremiah Dixon (1733), Robert Dixon (1800) and John White (1826) were all born here before 1900. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: like most towns its size, it has no Grade I building; per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and the list grew between 1982 and 2016.