42 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade II*

Shotley HallGrade II* listedChurch of St CuthbertGrade II listedCutlers' HallGrade II listedChrist Church Church HallGrade II listedChurch of Our Blessed Lady ImmaculateGrade 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.

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).

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 3 entries were listed in 1951. 28 came in 1987, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.

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.

George John Smith

Martin Higgins

James Conlin

Jimmy Seed

Mark Hewitson

18501875190019251950

JC

James Conlin1881–1917 · English footballer (1881-1917)

JS

Jimmy Seed1895–1966 · English footballer and manager (1895-1966)

George John Smith1862–1946 · New Zealand politician

MH

Mark Hewitson1897–1973 · British politician (1897-1973)

MH

Martin Higgins1879– · Association football player

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

Consett has 42 listed buildings, including Shotley Hall. Its older streets lie in 3 conservation areas, the first designated in 1975. Of the 5 people born here before 1900, the best known include James Conlin (1881), Jimmy Seed (1895) and George John Smith (1862). More than half went on the list in a single year, 1987: 28 of 42. The rest is about typical: it has no Grade I building, where the middle town its size has 1; per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and 20% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.