IChurch · listed 1955Church of St Peter and St Paul and St Thomas of CanterburyPhoto: John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0
The Manor House · Photo: Simon Cobb · CC0A−History Grade
History of Bovey Tracey · Historic England
65 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I
On the Historic England list, all of them stand inside Bovey Tracey’s built-up area, 104 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 2 scheduled monuments. We have photos of 10 of its listed buildings and 1 old view of the town. 21% of its homes were built before 1919. Bovey Tracey grades A− for history: #21 of 47 in Devon.
Listed buildings
65
104 per 10,000 residents
Grade I
1
exceptional interest
Grade II*
6
more than special interest
Scheduled monuments
2
nationally important sites
Homes built before 1919
21%
typical UK town 15%
In pictures
Bovey Tracey in 13 photos and old views
Nearly every Grade I and II* building, photographed, and the town before 1950. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.
Church of St Peter and St Paul and St Thomas of CanterburyGrade I listed
Cromwell's Arch and adjacent archScheduled monument
Tracey Almshouses Including 2 Earlier Granite Uprights Attached to Front Wall and the Cap of a Gatepost at the East EndGrade II listed
The Bell InnGrade II listed
Former Railway StationGrade II listed+8See all photosPhotos 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.
Through time
Bovey Tracey in old photos
1 old photo or postcard, in date order. All public domain, made before 1950.
1862Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.
The map
Where Bovey Tracey’s history is
Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park, over the age of each neighbourhood’s homes.
Grade IGrade II*Scheduled monument
Homes built before 1919, by neighbourhoodunder 10%10–25%25–50%50%+
0 of 4neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 41% were built before 1919.
Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.
65 listed buildings by grade
1 Grade I6 Grade II*58 Grade II
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).
Grade I
The Grade I listed building in Bovey Tracey
Buildings of exceptional interest, about 2.5% of all listed buildings. Every one is photographed. Each opens its own page, with the official list entry.
Grade II*
The 6 Grade II* listed buildings in Bovey Tracey
Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. Every one is photographed.
II*House · listed 1955The Manor HousePhoto: Simon Cobb · CC0
II*Church · listed 1986Chest Tomb 3 Metres South-East of South Aisle of Church of St ThomasPhoto: Simon Cobb · CC0
II*Church · listed 1986Chest Tomb 30 Metres South of Chancel of Church of St ThomasPhoto: Simon Cobb · CC0
II*Church · listed 1986Church of St John the EvangelistPhoto: Nigel Cox · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*House · listed 1955Rumbling Tum Restaurant And Yew Tree CottageOn the list as Nos 66-68, And No 70 (Yew Tree Cottage) Fore StreetPhoto: Simon Cobb · CC0
II*House · listed 1986Nos. 20 (Manor Cottage), 22 (Cottage Retreat) and 24Photo: Simon Cobb · CC0
What’s protected
The largest group of Bovey Tracey’s listed buildings is homes
Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.
Houses, terraces & villas28
Churches, chapels & priories14
Walls, gates & bridges10
Public & civic buildings6
Inns, shops & warehouses4
Memorials, crosses & tombs2
Street furniture1
28 entries (43%) are houses, terraces and villas. 14 are churches, chapels and priories, including 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings.
Buildings are sorted by words in each entry’s name (church, gate, inn, memorial…): the list’s open data has no building type. An entry named only by its address counts as a house.
Grade II
58 Grade II listed buildings
Most listed buildings are in this grade, which covers buildings of special interest. Open any building to read its official list entry.
All 58 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z
Arch at Entrance to Graveyard of Baptist ChapelAtway CottagesAtway Farmhouse, Including Area Railing and Gate in the Cobbled Area Adjoining Atway CottagesBarn About 4 Metres South of Nos. 3 and 4 Town Hall PlaceBarn at Five Wyches Farm, About 10 Metres West of FarmhouseBell HouseBovey BridgeBovey Stone, In Garden Wall of Cross Cottage About 7 Metres South-East of Furzeleigh LaneChallabrook Cross, On Public Footpath About 350 Metres North-East of Challabrook CrossChest Tomb 2.5 Metres South of South Aisle of Church of St ThomasChurch Hall and Garden Railings About 17 Metres South of Church of St ThomasChurch Hill HouseChurch StepsChurch StyleChurchyard Cross About 30 Metres South-West of Porch of Church of St ThomasColehayes Lodge Gates and Quadrant Flanking WallsCromwell's ArchCross CottageCross Incorporated in War Memorial, About 2 Metres from South-West Corner of Town HallDevon House FlatsDirection Post About 5 Metres from Junction with Bradley RoadDirection Post About 50 Metres North of St John's Church, At Junction of Ashburton Road and Newton RoadDolphin HotelEast Dartmoor Baptist ChurchFive Wyches FarmhouseFormer Railway StationFront House Guest HouseGatepiers, Gates and Churchyard Wall to East Approximately 14 Metres South of Porch of Parish Church of St Thomas of CanterburyGranite Plaque Reset in Terrace Wall Immediately Opposite Front of Guest HouseGranite Trough and Recess in South Wall of Church Style Garden About 27 Metres South of Trough LaneGrey GablesHobland HouseK6 Telephone Kiosk outside Bovey Tracey Town HallKing of Prussia InnLittle Front HouseNo. 15 Including No. 82 Fore StreetPair of Tomb Slabs at Either Side of Top Step Immediately South of Entrance to South Porch of Church of St Thomas of CanterburyPludda Thatch and Little ReedsRiverside MillRose Cottage Including Archway Afjoining Front House Guest HouseSouthdown HouseSt John's Cottages, Including the Gateposts and Front Garden RailingsSt John's VicarageSt MarysSummerfieldThe Bell InnTomb Slab at 5.5 Metres South-East of South Porch of Church of St ThomasTown HallTracey Almshouses Including 2 Earlier Granite Uprights Attached to Front Wall and the Cap of a Gatepost at the East EndWar Memorial in the churchyard of the church of St John the Evangelist1,3 and 5, Mary Street12 and 13, Town Hall Place25,25A,27 and 27A, Fore Street3 and 4, Town Hall Place40-48, East Street65, Fore Street73,75,77 and 79, Mary Street8 and 9, Town Hall Place
Conservation areas
2 conservation areas cover 7.4% of Bovey Tracey
Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.
Bovey Tracey Town Centre and Mary Street 197614 ha
Bovey Tracey Pottery Road 20103 ha
17 hain conservation areas, of 231 ha inside the built-up area.
The first, Bovey Tracey Town Centre and Mary Street, was designated in 1976; the newest, Bovey Tracey Pottery Road, in 2010. 47 of the 65 listed buildings stand in one.
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.
How the list grew
More than half of Bovey Tracey’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1986
The year each building now on the list was first listed.
1986 · 431955 · 101978 · 6
19501960197019801990200020102020
The first 10 entries were listed in 1955, 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings among them. 43 came in 1986, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 3 have been added in the last 15 years.
Monuments & landscapes
Monuments, parks and gardens
Designations that overlap the town by a tenth of their area or half a hectare.
2 scheduled monuments
Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Secretary of State, advised by Historic England.
History Grade
Bovey Tracey grades A− for history
Protected heritage and the age of the town’s homes, against all UK towns.
Protected heritage, for its size and in all (77 points, 123 per 10,000 residents)More than 79% of UK towns
Homes built before 1919 (21%)More than 63% of UK towns
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.
Born here
3 notable people born in Bovey Tracey before 1900
Their lives on one timeline, earliest first.
Walter Tapper
Arnold Wienholt Hodson
Cuthbert Girdlestone
18501875190019251950
AH
Arnold Wienholt Hodson1881–1944 · British Colonial Governor
WT
Walter Tapper1861–1935 · Architect (1861–1935)
CG
Cuthbert Girdlestone1895–1975 · British musicologist (1895–1975)
Everyone born in Bovey Tracey → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.
Towns its size
Bovey Tracey has the 89th most Grade I buildings of 867 towns its size
Places of 4,000–10,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.
Bovey Tracey1
#167 of 867for listed buildings per resident (104 per 10,000). Sandwich, Tenby and Brecon lead.
88 have more. The typical town its size has 0.
Neighbours
Listed buildings in the places around Bovey Tracey
| Town | People | Listed | Grade I | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bovey Tracey | 6,241 | 65 | 1 | A− |
| Heathfield | 1,496 | 0 | 0 | D− |
| Coldeast | 1,186 | 2 | 0 | D |
| Chudleigh Knighton | 1,168 | 11 | 0 | B+ |
| Chudleigh | 4,372 | 49 | 1 | A− |
| Kingsteignton | 11,945 | 45 | 0 | B− |
| Newton Abbot | 29,650 | 144 | 3 | A− |
| Denbury | 1,482 | 15 | 1 | A− |
In brief
Bovey Tracey in brief
Measured per resident, Bovey Tracey has more listed heritage than 79% of UK towns. In all there are 65 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I, including Church of St Peter and St Paul and St Thomas of Canterbury. Only 88 of the 867 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Its older streets lie in 2 conservation areas, the first designated in 1976.
Arnold Wienholt Hodson (1881), Walter Tapper (1861) and Cuthbert Girdlestone (1895) were all born here before 1900. The big year was 1986, when 43 of the 65 went on the list. The rest is about typical: it also has 2 scheduled monuments; and 21% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.
Questions about Bovey Tracey’s history
How many listed buildings are there in Bovey Tracey?
Historic England lists 65 buildings inside Bovey Tracey’s built-up area: 1 Grade I, 6 Grade II* and 58 Grade II.
What are the Grade I listed buildings in Bovey Tracey?
One: Church of St Peter and St Paul and St Thomas of Canterbury.
Are there scheduled monuments in Bovey Tracey?
Yes, 2 scheduled monuments, including Bovey Potteries and Cromwell's Arch and adjacent arch.
How many conservation areas are there in Bovey Tracey?
2, covering about 17 hectares of the town. The largest are Bovey Tracey Town Centre and Mary Street and Bovey Tracey Pottery Road.
When were Bovey Tracey’s buildings listed?
The first in 1955; the most, 43, in 1986.
Are there old photos of Bovey Tracey?
Yes: 1 public-domain photo or postcard from 1862 to 1862, all on this page.
Who was born in Bovey Tracey?
Among people born before 1900: Arnold Wienholt Hodson (1881), Walter Tapper (1861) and Cuthbert Girdlestone (1895).
How old are the homes in Bovey Tracey?
21% of homes were built before 1919 and 28% before 1940, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records (March 2025).
© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The National Heritage List for England is the official, up-to-date register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites in England; check an entry on Historic England’s website before relying on it.
Sources: Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only · Historic England conservation areas (supplied by local planning authorities; October 2026). All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.