Old Townford Mill · Photo: nick macneill · CC BY-SA 2.0

History of Halstead · Historic England

130 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I

Historic England counts them inside Halstead’s built-up area, 94 for every 10,000 residents. 124 of Halstead’s listed buildings are Grade II. We have photos of 9 of its listed buildings and 2 old views of the town. 19% of its homes were built before 1919. Halstead grades A− for history: #10 of 81 in Essex.

1Grade I 5Grade II*33on High Street

Listed buildings

130

94 per 10,000 residents

Grade I

exceptional interest

Grade II*

more than special interest

Scheduled monuments

nationally important sites

Homes built before 1919

19%

typical UK town 15%

In pictures

Halstead in 10 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.

Parish Church of St AndrewGrade I listed

Trinity HouseGrade II* listed

Bird in Hand Public HouseGrade II listed

Branch LibraryGrade II listed

Bull HotelGrade II listed+5See 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.

Through time

Halstead from 1904 to 1913

2 old photos and postcards, in date order. All public domain, made before 1950.

EdwardianHalstead event military mounted soldiers & crowd Essex RPPhoto: Mark Crombie · Public domain

EdwardianHalstead. Colchester Road - S 9158 by WHS Kingsway. ESSEX POSTCARD 1913Photo: Mark Crombie · Public domain

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 Halstead’s history is

Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park, over the age of each neighbourhood’s homes.

Grade IGrade II*

Homes built before 1919, by neighbourhoodunder 10%10–25%25–50%50%+

0 of 8neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 39% were built before 1919.

Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.

130 listed buildings by grade

1 Grade I5 Grade II*124 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 Halstead

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.

Church · listed 1950Parish Church of St AndrewPhoto: Andrew Hill · CC BY-SA 2.0

Grade II*

The 5 Grade II* listed buildings in Halstead

Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. Every one is photographed.

Inns & shops · listed 1950Old Townford MillPhoto: nick macneill · CC BY-SA 2.0

House · listed 1950Trinity HousePhoto: Evelyn Simak · CC BY-SA 2.0

Church · listed 1978Holy Trinity ChurchPhoto: Robert Edwards · CC BY-SA 2.0

House · listed 195022 and 24, High StreetPhoto: Andrew Davis · CC BY-SA 2.0

House · listed 195026, High StreetPhoto: Andrew Davis · CC BY-SA 2.0

Historic streets

High 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.

High Street33 listed · 2 II*

Head Street28 listed

Parsonage Street6 listed

Of the 130 entries, 78 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

What’s protected

Most of Halstead’s listed buildings are homes

Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.

Houses, terraces & villas104

Inns, shops & warehouses14

Churches, chapels & priories5

Public & civic buildings4

Walls, gates & bridges2

Memorials, crosses & tombs1

104 entries (80%) are houses, terraces and villas. 5 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

124 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 124 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z

Balls Farmhouse Barn at Crowbridge Farmhouse Barn at Wash Farm Barton House Bird in Hand Public House Blamsters Blue Bridge Cottage Branch Library Brick Barn Hall Brook Farmhouse Broomhill Bull Hotel Cemetery Lodge Chipping Hill House Coach House to Mill House Congregational Church Crowbridge Farm Cottages Drinking Fountain Gatehouse to Mill House Greenwood School Halstead Pottery and Craft Studio Immediately South West of Numbers 2 and 4 Parsonage Street Lloyds Bank Limited Mill House Mill and Mill Building, North Mills Napier Arms Public House No 7 and Nos 9-13, Chapel Hill Office and Stores Building, East of Braintree District Council Offices Parsonage House Pitchards Red House Rose and Crown Public House Royal British Legion Club Royal Oak Public House Sloe House Slough Farmhouse The Chase The Chestnuts The Griffin Public House The Howe The Locomotive Public House The Old Mineral Water Works The Three Pigeons Public House The White Hart Inn The White House Three Tombs, Immediately South East of South Porch St Andrew's Church Veterinary Surgery and Stables Wash Farm Windmill House 1 and 3, Market Hill 1, High Street 1-16, Factory Lane East 1-2, The Causeway 1-5, Chapel Hill 1-7, Parsonage Street 10, High Street 10, Parsonage Street 103 and 105, Head Street 11 and 13, Head Street 11, Sudbury Road 12, 12a and 12b, Parsonage Street 12, High Street 13, High Street 14, Head Street 15 and 17, Head Street 17 and 17A, High Street 18 and 20, High Street 19, High Street 1A, 1B and 1C, Head Street 2 and 4, Head Street 2 and 4, Parsonage Street 2, High Street 20, Head Street 21 and 23, Head Street 21, High Street 22-26, Head Street 25, Box Mill Lane 25, High Street 27-31, Head Street 28, 30A and 30B, High Street 28, Head Street 3, Head Street 3, High Street 3-12, The Causeway 32 and 32A, Head Street 33 and 35, Head Street 33, High Street 34 and 36, Head Street 36, High Street 37 and 39, High Street 38, Head Street 40 and 42, High Street 41 and 43, High Street 43, Head Street 45 and 47, Head Street 45, High Street 47 and 47A, High Street 49 and 51, High Street 5 and 7, Head Street 5 and 7, High Street 5-9, Bridge Street 53 and 55, High Street 57 and 59, Head Street 57, High Street 59 and 61, High Street 6 and 8, Parsonage Street 6, Head Street 60 and 62, High Street 65 and 67, High Street 7-18, Weavers Row 70-74, High Street 71-77, Head Street 75, High Street 8, Head Street 8, Hedingham Road 82, High Street 89, Head Street 9 and 11, High Street 9, Parsonage Street 9-15, Hedingham Road 91, Head Street 93, Head Street 95 and 97, Head Street 99 and 101, Head Street 99-107, High Street

Conservation areas

1 conservation area covers 7.5% of Halstead

Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.

Halstead Town Centre 196925 ha

25 hain conservation areas, of 336 ha inside the built-up area.

109 of the 130 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 Halstead’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1978

The year each building now on the list was first listed.

1978 · 1051950 · 13

19501960197019801990200020102020

The first 13 entries were listed in 1950, 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings among them. 105 came in 1978, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.

History Grade

Halstead 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 (137 points, 99 per 10,000 residents)More than 80% of UK towns

Homes built before 1919 (19%)More than 58% 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

6 notable people born in Halstead before 1900

Their lives on one timeline, earliest first.

John Bourchier, 6th Baron Ferrers of Groby

John Coggeshall

Augustine Stow

George Henry Fowke

Agnes Morton

Annie Huggett

1500165018001950

Agnes Morton1872–1952 · English tennis player (1872–1952)

George Henry Fowke1864–1936 · British Army general

John Bourchier, 6th Baron Ferrers of Groby1438–1495 · English noble

Augustine Stow1833–1903 · Public servant and politician in South Australia (1833-1903)

John Coggeshall1601–1647 · Rhode Island colonial president (1601-1647)

Annie Huggett1892–1995 · English suffragette (1892–1995)

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

Towns its size

Halstead has the 109th most Grade I buildings of 575 towns its size

Places of 8,000–22,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.

Armagh25

Ely25

Wells23

Halstead1

#106 of 575for listed buildings per resident (94 per 10,000). Ludlow, Bridport and Monmouth lead.

108 have more. The typical town its size has 0.

Neighbours

Listed buildings in the places around Halstead

Town	People	Listed	Grade I	History
Halstead	13,902	130	1	A⁻
Gosfield	1,453	34	1	A⁻
Earls Colne	3,360	74	1	A
Sible Hedingham	4,261	83	0	A⁻
Castle Hedingham	1,045	105	1	A⁺
Coggeshall	3,767	197	3	A⁺
Braintree	43,179	189	2	B
Great Yeldham	1,824	28	1	B⁺

In brief

Halstead in brief

Per resident, Halstead has more listed heritage than 80% of UK towns. All told, the list holds 130 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I, including Parish Church of St Andrew. Only 108 of the 575 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. High Street alone has 33 listed buildings.

A conservation area has protected part of it since 1969. Most entries on the list, 80%, are houses, terraces and villas. Agnes Morton (1872), George Henry Fowke (1864) and John Bourchier, 6th Baron Ferrers of Groby (1438) are among the 6 people born here before 1900. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: 19% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.

Questions about Halstead’s history

How many listed buildings are there in Halstead?

Historic England lists 130 buildings inside Halstead’s built-up area: 1 Grade I, 5 Grade II* and 124 Grade II.

What are the Grade I listed buildings in Halstead?

One: Parish Church of St Andrew.

Which street in Halstead has the most listed buildings?

High Street (33), Head Street (28) and Parsonage Street (6) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.

How many conservation areas are there in Halstead?

1, covering about 25 hectares of the town. The largest is Halstead Town Centre.

When were Halstead’s buildings listed?

The first in 1950; the most, 105, in 1978.

Are there old photos of Halstead?

Yes: 2 public-domain photos and postcards from 1904 to 1913, all on this page.

Who was born in Halstead?

Among people born before 1900: Agnes Morton (1872), George Henry Fowke (1864), John Bourchier, 6th Baron Ferrers of Groby (1438), Augustine Stow (1833) and John Coggeshall (1601).

How old are the homes in Halstead?

19% 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.