35 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade II*

The Grapes Inn and Adjoining BarnGrade II listedLeesbrook MillGrade II listedChurch of Saint John the BaptistGrade II listed+1See 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.

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).

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 8 entries were listed in 1967. 16 came in 1986, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.

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.

23% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1965–72, which added 19% 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 (93 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Laurence Chaderton

Nell Kenney

Arthur Lees

Annie Kenney

Jenny Kenney

Jessie Kenney

Thomas Steele

1500165018001950

Annie Kenney1879–1953 · British suffragette (1879-1953)

Jessie Kenney1887–1985 · UK suffragette

Laurence Chaderton1536–1640 · English bible translator (1536-1640)

NK

Nell Kenney1876–1953 · Suffragette (1876-1953)

Jenny Kenney1884–1961 · British suffragette and Montessori teacher

AL

Arthur Lees1876– · English rugby union and rugby league footballer

TS

Thomas Steele1891–1978 · English recipient of the Victoria Cross, and rugby league footballer …

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

Old houses are part of Lees’s character: 29% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. In all there are 35 listed buildings, including Church of St Thomas. A conservation area protects part of it.

Most entries on the list, 80%, are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 7 people born here before 1900, the best known include Annie Kenney (1879), Jessie Kenney (1887) and Laurence Chaderton (1536). The rest is about typical: like most towns its size, it has no Grade I building; and per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns.