8 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I

Church of St LawrenceGrade I listedThe Old George InnGrade II listed44, High StreetGrade 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.

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.

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.

16% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1945–54, which added 18% 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 (18 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

James Stubbings

Samuel Malthouse

Daniel Bottom

Walter Stubbings

William Ellis

John William Streets

Jim Plant

18501875190019251950

WE

William Ellis1876–1931 · English cricketer, born 1876 (1876–1931)

DB

Daniel Bottom1864–1937 · English cricketer (1864-1937)

JS

James Stubbings1856–1912 · English cricketer (1856-1912)

SM

Samuel Malthouse1857–1931 · English cricketer (1857-1931)

WS

Walter Stubbings1870–1949 · English cricketer (1870-1949)

JP

Jim Plant1898– · English footballer (1898-?)

John William Streets1886–1916 · British poet (1886–1916)

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

Old houses are part of Whitwell’s character: 25% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. In all there are 8 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I, including Church of St Lawrence. Only 93 of the 1,095 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings.

A conservation area has protected part of it since 1971. Of the 7 people born here before 1900, the best known include William Ellis (1876), Daniel Bottom (1864) and James Stubbings (1856). Otherwise the figures are ordinary: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and the list grew between 1951 and 2011.