74 listed buildings, 9 of them Grade II*

Aykroyd & Sons, Clothing Factory (Former Workhouse)Grade II* listedDerlwynGrade II* listedDolyddGrade II* listedFedw ArianGrade II* listedRonvilleGrade 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.

Cadw lists buildings of special architectural or historic interest in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest, Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest, and Grade II for buildings of special interest. Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on Cadw’s register of listed buildings whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings.

Of the 74 entries, 21 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Cadw’s conservation areas via DataMapWales. Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 12 entries were listed in 1951. 58 came in 2001. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.

1 scheduled monument

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Welsh Government (Cadw).

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.

32% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1945–54, which added 18% 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 (0 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

More of Y Bala’s homes are old than in most places: 34% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 74 listed buildings. Per resident, it has more listed heritage than 90% of UK towns. On Ffrydan Road alone there are 8 listed buildings.

A conservation area has protected part of it since 1978. Most entries on the list, 59%, are houses, terraces and villas. The big year was 2001, when 58 of the 74 went on the list. Beyond that, like most towns its size, it has no Grade I building; Jack Evans (1889) and Richard John Lloyd Price (1843) were born here before 1900; and it also has a scheduled monument.