IHouse · listed 1951Bocking WindmillOn the list as WindmillPhoto: Brenda Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0
The White Hart Hotel · Photo: Lankyrider · CC BY-SA 4.0BHistory Grade
History of Braintree · Historic England
189 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I
Historic England counts them inside Braintree’s built-up area, 44 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 2 scheduled monuments. 8.7% of its homes were built before 1919. We have photos of 11 of its listed buildings and 5 old views of the town. Braintree grades B for history: #24 of 81 in Essex.
Listed buildings
189
44 per 10,000 residents
Grade I
2
exceptional interest
Grade II*
21
more than special interest
Scheduled monuments
2
nationally important sites
Homes built before 1919
8.7%
typical UK town 15%
In pictures
Braintree in 16 photos and old views
Tap a photo to step through them full screen.
WindmillGrade I listed
Church of St Mary the VirginGrade I listed
Town Hall Including Screens and Public Lavatories Adjoining North East and SouthGrade II* listed
Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, BockingGrade II listed
Braintree Railway Station and Former Station Master's HouseGrade II listed+11See 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
Braintree from 1906 to 1912
5 old photos and postcards, in date order. All public domain, made before 1950.
1906
1906
c. 1907
1912
Public 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 Braintree’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 25neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 42% were built before 1919.
Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.
189 listed buildings by grade
2 Grade I21 Grade II*166 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 2 Grade I listed buildings in Braintree
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.
IChurch · listed 1951Church of St Mary the Virgin, BockingOn the list as Church of St Mary the VirginPhoto: Brenda Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0
Grade II*
The 21 Grade II* listed buildings in Braintree
Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. 6 are photographed.
II*Public · listed 1992Braintree Town HallOn the list as Town Hall Including Screens and Public Lavatories Adjoining North East and SouthPhoto: Brenda Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*Inns & shops · listed 1951Bradford MillPhoto: Brenda Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*Church · listed 1951Church of St MichaelPhoto: Robert Edwards · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*Inns & shops · listed 1951The SwanOn the list as Swan InnPhoto: Lankyrider · CC BY-SA 4.0
II*Walls & gates · listed 1973Wall to the Church of St Mary the VirginPhoto: Brenda Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*House · listed 1951114-118, Bradford StreetPhoto: nick macneill · CC BY-SA 2.0
House · listed 1957Black Notley Lodge
Public · listed 1951Bocking Hall
House · listed 1951Boleyns
House · listed 1951Bradford House
Inns & shops · listed 1951Dial House Inn
House · listed 1951Georgian House
Show the other 9
House · listed 1951Maysent House
House · listed 1951The Constitutional Club and Shops
House · listed 1951The Old Manor House
House · listed 1951Wentworth House
House · listed 195111, Bradford Street
House · listed 195135-39, Church Lane
House · listed 19514, Bradford Street
House · listed 195775, Bradford Street
House · listed 195177-81, Bradford Street
Historic streets
Bradford Street has the most listed buildings
Streets by the listed entries with an address on them. One entry can be a whole terrace, so long rows count once.
Bradford Street29 listed · 5 II*
High Street11 listed
Church Lane8 listed · 1 II*
Bank Street6 listed
Church Street6 listed
Coggeshall Road5 listed
London Road5 listed
New Street5 listed
Rayne Road4 listed
Of the 189 entries, 90 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.
What’s protected
Most of Braintree’s listed buildings are homes
Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.
Houses, terraces & villas138
Inns, shops & warehouses23
Public & civic buildings16
Churches, chapels & priories5
Walls, gates & bridges4
Street furniture2
Memorials, crosses & tombs1
138 entries (73%) are houses, terraces and villas. 5 are churches, chapels and priories, including 1 of the 2 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
166 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.
The first 150 of 166 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z
AlmshousesAngel InnAngel InnBarclay's BankBarn 18 Metres South West of Mark's FarmhouseBawn CottageBaytrees Restaurant and Osborn's ShopBeechcroftBell InnBishop Cauden's HallBlandford HouseBradbury HouseBradford Mill HouseBraintree Railway Station and Former Station Master's HouseBridge FarmhouseChapel of the Immaculate Conception, BockingChurch of St PeterClapbridge Farm HouseClinton HouseCollege HouseCongregational ChurchCottages at the Rear of King William InnDovecote to the DeaneryDragon HouseEssex County LibraryFountain, High StreetFowler's FarmhouseFranciscan ConventGooseberry HallGresham HouseHarriets FarmhouseHill HouseHill HouseHill MalthouseHorse and Groom InnHouse Occupied by Henry Joscelyn LimitedHouse and Shop Occupied by Adams and Sons NewsagentHouse and Shop Occupied by Cameron ChemistJohn Ray HouseK6 Telephone KioskKing William InnKing's Head InnLeahurstLittle BradfordsLittle Marshalls Marshalls Marshalls TwoMark's FarmhouseNew MillsNotley PlaceNumber 19 (Including Outbuilding at the Rear)Number 23 and Hill HouseNumber 7 Cob Cottage and Number 8Number 77 and Covered Passageway to South West and North East Cart EntranceNumbers 74, 74A and Corn ExchangeOld Court HotelOutbuilding 30 Metres East of Bocking HallOutbuildings to Bradford MillPlough CottagePound End Mill (formerly part of New Mills)Rayne LodgeResting Seat HouseRose and Crown Public HouseSt Michael's HospitalStable Block and Outbuildings at BoleynsStanford HouseTelephone KioskThe BawnThe Boar's Head HotelThe Bull HotelThe Cage or Lock UpThe Corner HouseThe CottageThe DeaneryThe Horn HotelThe Institute and MuseumThe Liberal ClubThe Wheatsheaf HotelThe White CottageThe White Hart HotelThorpe LodgeTudor CottageWall to Bocking Hall1 and 3, Church Lane1, Woolpack Lane10-14, Bradford Street100 and 102, High Street102 and 104, Bradford Street105 and 107, High Street106 High Street106, Bradford Street108, Bradford Street11, Bank Street112 & 122-126, Church Street112, High Street113 and 115, High Street121-139, Church Street156 and 158, Cressing Road16-20, Bradford Street169, Notley Road19 and 21, London Road190-210, Church Lane2, Bocking End2, Woolpack Lane20, Witham Road21 and 22, Clockhouse Way21, Coggeshall Road212, Church Lane22 New Street23-33, London Road24 and 26 New Street24, Bradford Street28-34, Rayne Road3 and 9, Bank Street3, Bradford Street3, New Street3, Panfield Lane31, Bank Street33, Bank Street34, New Street35 and 37, London Road37 and 39, Bank Street38, Bradford Street4, New Street40 and 42, Bradford Street40, Bank Street41, London Road43 and 45, Church Street46, Bradford Street47, Church Lane47-51, Church Street48 Church Lane48, Bradford Street48-52, Rayne Road5 and 7, Panfield Lane5, Bradford Street5, Church Lane50, Bradford Street53-57, Church Street54 and 56, 56A, Bradford Street54-74, Rayne Road6 8, Rayne Road6 and 8, Bradford Street63-73, Bradford Street66, South Street68 and 70, South Street68, 68B, Bradford Street7 and 9, Bradford Street7 to 17 Church Street72A and 72, High Street73 and 75 High Street76 and 78, High Street
Conservation areas
2 conservation areas cover 6.8% of Braintree
Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.
Braintree Town Centre and Bradford Street 196959 ha
Bocking Church Street 198112 ha
71 hain conservation areas, of 1,045 ha inside the built-up area.
The first, Braintree Town Centre and Bradford Street, was designated in 1969; the newest, Bocking Church Street, in 1981. 155 of the 189 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
94 of Braintree’s 189 listed buildings were added in 1973
The year each building now on the list was first listed.
1973 · 941951 · 61
19501960197019801990200020102020
The first 61 entries were listed in 1951, 2 of the 2 Grade I buildings among them. 94 came in 1973, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 1 has 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
Braintree grades B for history
Protected heritage and the age of the town’s homes, against all UK towns.
Protected heritage, for its size and in all (218 points, 50 per 10,000 residents)More than 74% of UK towns
Homes built before 1919 (8.7%)More than 21% 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.
Homes by age
8.7% of Braintree’s homes were built before 1919
Every home by when it was built, from council tax records, against England & Wales (the dark tick).
5.4%
Before 1900
3.3%
1900–18
5.4%
1919–29
6.1%
1930s
5.6%
1945–54
6.7%
1955–64
12%
1965–72
12%
1973–82
6.9%
1983–92
12%
1993–99
13%
2000–08
5.4%
2009–15
5.7%
2016–25
BraintreeEngland & Wales
5.4% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 2000–08, 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 (10 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.
Born here
13 notable people born in Braintree before 1900
Their lives on one timeline, earliest first.
Thomas Fitch
James Fitch
James Challis
Josiah Vavasseur
George Whale
Margaret Veley
Katharine O'Shea
John Church
John Sewell Courtauld
Stephen Courtauld
Elsie Vera Cole
Walter Rankin
Ethel Rankin
16001650170017501800185019001950
James Challis1803–1882 · British astronomer (1803-1882)
Katharine O'Shea1846–1921 · British aristocrat (1846-1921)
GW
George Whale1842–1910 · British locomotive engineer (1842-1910)
MV
Margaret Veley1843–1887 · English writer
JV
Josiah Vavasseur1834–1908 · Josiah Vavasseur
JC
John Church1859–1937 · Australian politician
JC
John Sewell Courtauld1880–1942 · British politician (1880-1942)
EC
Elsie Vera Cole1885–1967 · British painter and engraver (1885-1967)
Everyone born in Braintree → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.
Towns its size
Braintree has the 47th most Grade I buildings of 256 towns its size
Places of 26,000–69,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.
Braintree2
#49 of 256for listed buildings per resident (44 per 10,000). Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury and Chichester lead.
46 have more. The typical town its size has 1.
Neighbours
Listed buildings in the places around Braintree
| Town | People | Listed | Grade I | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braintree | 43,179 | 189 | 2 | B |
| Great Notley | 7,659 | 9 | 0 | D |
| Tye Green | 1,415 | 8 | 0 | C |
| Black Notley | 1,932 | 16 | 0 | C+ |
| Rayne | 2,169 | 51 | 1 | A− |
| Silver End | 3,913 | 24 | 0 | C+ |
| Gosfield | 1,453 | 34 | 1 | A− |
| Great Leighs | 2,968 | 17 | 0 | B− |
In brief
Braintree in brief
Braintree has 189 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I, including Bocking Windmill. Only 46 of the 256 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Bradford Street alone has 29 listed buildings. Its older streets lie in 2 conservation areas, the first designated in 1969.
Most entries on the list, 73%, are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 13 people born here before 1900, the best known include James Challis (1803), Katharine O'Shea (1846) and George Whale (1842). Its homes are mostly newer: 8.7% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. The rest is about typical: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and it also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Questions about Braintree’s history
How many listed buildings are there in Braintree?
Historic England lists 189 buildings inside Braintree’s built-up area: 2 Grade I, 21 Grade II* and 166 Grade II.
What are the Grade I listed buildings in Braintree?
2, including Church of St Mary the Virgin and Windmill.
Which street in Braintree has the most listed buildings?
Bradford Street (29), High Street (11) and Church Lane (8) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.
Are there scheduled monuments in Braintree?
Yes, 2 scheduled monuments, including Bocking windmill and Dovecote at The Old Deanery, 380m south of Bocking Hall.
How many conservation areas are there in Braintree?
2, covering about 71 hectares of the town. The largest are Braintree Town Centre and Bradford Street and Bocking Church Street.
When were Braintree’s buildings listed?
The first in 1951; the most, 94, in 1973.
Are there old photos of Braintree?
Yes: 5 public-domain photos and postcards from 1906 to 1912, all on this page.
Who was born in Braintree?
Among people born before 1900: James Challis (1803), Katharine O'Shea (1846), George Whale (1842), Margaret Veley (1843) and Josiah Vavasseur (1834).
How old are the homes in Braintree?
8.7% of homes were built before 1919 and 20% 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.