163 listed buildings, 5 of them Grade I

Remains of North-West Corner of Abbey Cloister and Church Wall in St Eustachius' ChurchyardGrade I listedPorch to Abbot's Hall in Grounds of Bedford HotelGrade I listedPost OfficeGrade II listedCanal BridgeGrade II listedCanal Building Adjoining Nos 2 and 3 to South EastGrade II listed+12See 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.

1890

1890

c. 1907

1946

Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.

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).

Of the 163 entries, 85 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Search the rest on Historic England’s list →

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 49 entries were listed in 1951, 5 of the 5 Grade I buildings among them. 56 came in 1983, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.

World Heritage

3 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.

Inscribed stones in vicarage garden

Tavistock Abbey

Trendle earthwork NE of Kelly College

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.

Francis Drake

William Browne

John Maynard

Thomas Gill

Mary Colling

Elizabeth Parson

Corelli Collard Field

James Withycombe

Murray Hammick

William Monk Gould

Mary Ellen Smith

Jack Hillman

Maurice Wilder-Neligan

Ada Hitchins

Francis George Stevens

Owen Morshead

1500165018001950

Francis Drake1540–1596 · English sailor and privateer (c. 1540 – 1596)

WB

William Browne1590–1645 · English poet (1590–1645)

James Withycombe1854–1919 · Governor of Oregon (1854-1919)

AH

Ada Hitchins1891–1972 · English nuclear research assistant

JH

Jack Hillman1871–1955 · English footballer (1871-1955)

Mary Ellen Smith1863–1933 · Canadian politician

Maurice Wilder-Neligan1882–1923 · Australian Army officer

John Maynard1604–1690 · English lawyer and politician; (1604-1690)

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

Per resident, Tavistock has more listed heritage than 86% of UK towns. All told, the list holds 163 listed buildings, 5 of them Grade I, including Betsy Grimbal's Tower, The Vicarage. Its Grade I buildings cluster together: 4 of them stand within 400 m of Abbey Gatehouse. Only 22 of the 594 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings.

West Street alone has 26 listed buildings. Its older streets lie in 3 conservation areas, the first designated in 1972. Most entries on the list, 67%, are houses, terraces and villas. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: it also has 3 scheduled monuments; and 20% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.