IHouse · listed 1949Old Garrison HousePhoto: Maria · CC BY-SA 3.0
Old Garrison House · Photo: Maria · CC BY-SA 3.0B+History Grade
History of Wivenhoe · Historic England
64 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I
On the Historic England list, all of them stand inside Wivenhoe’s built-up area, 87 for every 10,000 residents. Of the listed buildings in Wivenhoe, 62 are Grade II. We have photos of 6 of its listed buildings and 2 old views of the town. 17% of its homes were built before 1919. Wivenhoe grades B+ for history: #15 of 81 in Essex.
Listed buildings
64
87 per 10,000 residents
Grade I
1
exceptional interest
Grade II*
1
more than special interest
Scheduled monuments
0
nationally important sites
Homes built before 1919
17%
typical UK town 15%
In pictures
Wivenhoe in 8 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.
The Church of St MaryGrade II* listed
The Black Bouy Public HouseGrade II listed
Wivenhoe Water TowerGrade II listed
27, West StreetGrade II listed
The Rose and Crown Public HouseGrade II listed+3See 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
Wivenhoe in old photos
2 old photos and postcards, in date order. All public domain, made before 1950.
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 Wivenhoe’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 5neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 35% were built before 1919.
Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.
64 listed buildings by grade
1 Grade I1 Grade II*62 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 Wivenhoe
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 Grade II* listed building in Wivenhoe
Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. Every one is photographed.
II*Church · listed 1949The Church of St MaryPhoto: Maria · CC BY-SA 3.0
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 Street9 listed
Alma Street8 listed
West Street3 listed
Of the 64 entries, 28 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.
What’s protected
Most of Wivenhoe’s listed buildings are homes
Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.
Houses, terraces & villas56
Churches, chapels & priories3
Inns, shops & warehouses3
Public & civic buildings2
56 entries (88%) are houses, terraces and villas. 3 are churches, chapels and priories.
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
62 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 62 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z
Alice's CottageAnchor Cottage BonitaAnchor HouseBerry House, WivenhoeBlack Buoy Cottage and Black Buoy Hill CottageButchersChristmas CottageFormer Stable Building Approximately 20 Metres South East South of Wivenhoe StationLittle WickMallets the Corner HouseMaple Cottage Quayside Cottage Trinity HouseMessrs Ferraini Construction and Cosira Wivenhoe Hall CottageNo. 2 East Street and Nonsuch HouseNo. 36 High Street, Church Cottage and Garden House, formerly known as The Falcon public houseNo. 64 High Street and no. 2 Queens Road, WivenhoeNos. 5, 7 and 9 Anchor HillNos. 51, 53, 55, 55a and 57 High Street, WivenhoeOld House (no. 29 West Street), 31 West Street and nos. 7-9 High Street, WivenhoePrice's HouseQuay Cottage, The Quay, WivenhoeQuay HouseRiverhouseThe Black Bouy Public HouseThe Greyhound Public HouseThe Lucy DeeThe Old BakehouseThe Old ManseThe Rose and Crown Public HouseThe Royal British LegionThe StorehouseThe Vines, The Quay, WivenhoeWar Memorial in the Churchyard of St Mary's ChurchWest HouseWivenhoe Water Tower10, Anchor Hill11 and 13, High Street12-18, Alma Street14, 15 and 16, Colchester Road15, 17 and 19, High Street16 and 18, The Cross17, 19 and 21, Alma Street2, 4, 6, 8 and 8A, HIGH STREET2, Alma Street2, Rose Lane20, 22 and 24, The Cross20-28, Alma Street21 and 23, High Street23, 25, 27 and 29, Alma Street23, West Street25, West Street27, West Street37, 39 and 41, High Street4, 6 and 8, Alma Street56, High Street58, High Street7, Alma Street70, High Street8 and 9, Brook Street84 and 86, High Street88 and 88A, Rectory Road88, High Street9-15, Alma Street
Conservation areas
1 conservation area covers 8.6% of Wivenhoe
Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.
Wivenhoe 196915 ha
15 hain conservation areas, of 170 ha inside the built-up area.
58 of the 64 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 Wivenhoe’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1982
The year each building now on the list was first listed.
1982 · 431973 · 13
19501960197019801990200020102020
The first 4 entries were listed in 1949, 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings among them. 43 came in 1982, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.
History Grade
Wivenhoe 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 (67 points, 91 per 10,000 residents)More than 74% of UK towns
Homes built before 1919 (17%)More than 51% 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.
Towns its size
Wivenhoe has the 86th most Grade I buildings of 790 towns its size
Places of 4,000–12,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.
Wivenhoe1
#173 of 790for listed buildings per resident (87 per 10,000). Brecon, Rye and Dartmouth lead.
85 have more. The typical town its size has 0.
Neighbours
Listed buildings in the places around Wivenhoe
| Town | People | Listed | Grade I | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wivenhoe | 7,354 | 64 | 1 | B+ |
| Rowhedge | 2,492 | 22 | 0 | B+ |
| Alresford | 2,462 | 5 | 0 | D |
| Elmstead Market | 1,767 | 10 | 0 | C |
| Berechurch | 7,702 | 3 | 0 | D− |
| Langenhoe and Abberton | 1,010 | 17 | 0 | B+ |
| Colchester | 130,259 | 443 | 13 | B+ |
| Thorrington | 1,427 | 6 | 0 | C |
In brief
Wivenhoe in brief
The official list counts 64 listed buildings in Wivenhoe, 1 of them Grade I, including Old Garrison House. Only 85 of the 790 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. On High Street alone there are 9 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1969.
Most entries on the list, 88%, are houses, terraces and villas. The big year was 1982, when 43 of the 64 went on the list. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; John Martin-Harvey (1863) and John Hall (1739) were born here before 1900; and 17% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.
Questions about Wivenhoe’s history
How many listed buildings are there in Wivenhoe?
Historic England lists 64 buildings inside Wivenhoe’s built-up area: 1 Grade I, 1 Grade II* and 62 Grade II.
What are the Grade I listed buildings in Wivenhoe?
One: Old Garrison House.
Which street in Wivenhoe has the most listed buildings?
High Street (9), Alma Street (8) and West Street (3) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.
How many conservation areas are there in Wivenhoe?
1, covering about 15 hectares of the town. The largest is Wivenhoe.
When were Wivenhoe’s buildings listed?
The first in 1949; the most, 43, in 1982.
Are there old photos of Wivenhoe?
Yes: 2 public-domain photos and postcards, all on this page.
How old are the homes in Wivenhoe?
17% of homes were built before 1919 and 22% 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.