201 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I

King John's HouseGrade I listedMiddle BridgeGrade I listedSadler's MillGrade II listedFolly in Garden of the Vicarage 50 Metres West of HouseGrade II listedHunters Inn Public HouseGrade II listed+8See 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).

Of the 201 entries, 115 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Search the rest on Historic England’s list →

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 56 entries were listed in 1951, 3 of the 3 Grade I buildings among them. 122 came in 1972, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 3 have been added in the last 15 years.

1 registered park or garden

BroadlandsGrade II*

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.

William Petty

John Easton

Henrietta Maria Moriarty

Henry Foot

James Risdon Bennett

Henry Curtis

John Russell Reynolds

Henry Holmes

Nathaniel Westlake

Florence H. Suckling

Harvey Grace

Charles Kennedy Scott

Bert Shelley

16001650170017501800185019001950

William Petty1623–1687 · English scientist, philosopher, statistician and economist (1623-1687)

JR

John Russell Reynolds1828–1896 · British neurologist and physician (1828–1896)

BS

Bert Shelley1899–1971 · English footballer (1899-1971)

John Easton1624–1705 · Rhode Island colonial governor

James Risdon Bennett1809–1891 · English doctor, son of the minister above

HH

Henry Holmes1833–1913 · English cricketer (1833-1913)

HM

Henrietta Maria Moriarty1781–1842 · British author and botanical artist

HF

Henry Foot1805–1857 · Australian cricketer (1805-1857)

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

Measured per resident, Romsey has more listed heritage than 84% of UK towns. In all there are 201 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I, including Romsey Abbey. Only 37 of the 470 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Market Place alone has 18 listed buildings.

A conservation area has protected part of it since 1969. Most entries on the list, 77%, are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 13 people born here before 1900, the best known include William Petty (1623), John Russell Reynolds (1828) and Bert Shelley (1899). The rest is about typical: 10% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.