5 listed buildings

Church of St StephenGrade II listedWillington, Oakenshaw, and Page Bank War Memorial CrossGrade 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.

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.

18% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1945–54, which added 15% 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.

Thomas Renton Elliott

George Burdon McKean

Walter Holmes

William Ashurst

Joe Kasher

Dickie Dale

18501875190019251950

WA

William Ashurst1894–1947 · English footballer (1894-1947)

DD

Dickie Dale1896–1970 · English footballer (1896-1970)

Thomas Renton Elliott1877–1961 · Physician and physiologist (1877-1961)

GM

George Burdon McKean1888–1926 · Recipient of the Victoria Cross

JK

Joe Kasher1894–1992 · English footballer (1894-1992)

WH

Walter Holmes1892–1978 · English footballer

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

Old houses are part of Willington’s character: 29% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. In all there are 5 listed buildings, including Church of St Stephen. Of the 6 people born here before 1900, the best known include William Ashurst (1894), Dickie Dale (1896) and Thomas Renton Elliott (1877). For its size the list is short: per resident, it has more listed heritage than only 19% of UK towns. Beyond that, the list grew between 1952 and 2017.