Old homes in Gainford: 44% built before 1919

Gainford HallGrade I listedChurch of St MaryGrade I listedDovecote, 45 metres south of Gainford HallGrade 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.

Of the 36 entries, 14 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 2 entries were listed in 1952, 1 of the 2 Grade I buildings among them. 19 came in 1966. Only 2 have 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.

34% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1945–54, 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 (5 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

More of Gainford’s homes are old than in most places: 44% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 36 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I. For its size, it has more listed heritage than 82% of UK towns. Only 26 of the 2,025 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings.

A conservation area has protected part of it since 1971. Most entries on the list, 67%, are houses, terraces and villas. The big year was 1966, when 19 of the 36 went on the list.