374 listed buildings, 8 of them Grade I

Parish Church of All SaintsGrade I listedOtham ManorGrade I listedThe Forge LodgesGrade II listedThe StagGrade II listedLock CottageGrade II listed+30See 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.

1870

c. 1890

c. 1890

c. 1890

c. 1920

c. 1948

Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.

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).

High Street21 listed · 1 II*

Lower Stone Street13 listed · 2 II*

Sandling Road13 listed

Bank Street12 listed · 2 II*

Gabriel's Hill11 listed

Ashford Road10 listed

King Street7 listed

Earl Street6 listed

Tonbridge Road5 listed

Albion Place4 listed

London Road4 listed

Middle Row4 listed

Of the 374 entries, 149 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 65 entries were listed in 1951, 5 of the 8 Grade I buildings among them. 203 came in 1974, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 7 have been added in the last 15 years.

4 scheduled monuments

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Secretary of State, advised by Historic England.

Len Bridge, Mill Street

The 'Gatehouse', Palace Gardens, Mill Street

The College of All Saints

Tithe barn, Mill Street

1 registered park or garden

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.

John Jenkins

William Woollett

William Alexander

William Hazlitt

Amy Brown

Sir Edmund Walker Head, 8th Baronet

Julius Brenchley

Christopher Newman Hall

Frederic J. Mouat

John Whichcord

William Robert Brooks

Albert Goodwin

William Cooper

Robert Blatchford

Frank Finn

Ethel Moorhead

Lilian Bland

F. G. Spackman

Bobby Beale

Wendy Wood

155016001650170017501800185019001950

William Hazlitt1778–1830 · English essayist and writer (1778–1830)

William Robert Brooks1844–1921 · American astronomer (1844–1921)

Lilian Bland1878–1971 · English aviator (1878-1971)

JJ

John Jenkins1592–1678 · English composer

Robert Blatchford1851–1943 · British writer and activist (1851–1943)

FS

F. G. Spackman1878–1942 · English footballer (1878-1942)

Bobby Beale1884–1950 · English footballer (1884-1950)

William Alexander1767–1816 · British artist, born 1767 (1767–1816)

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

Maidstone has 374 listed buildings, 8 of them Grade I, including Allington Castle. Only 19 of the 99 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. On High Street alone there are 21 listed buildings. Its older streets lie in 9 conservation areas, the first designated in 1969.

Most entries on the list, 72%, are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 43 people born here before 1900, the best known include William Hazlitt (1778), William Robert Brooks (1844) and Lilian Bland (1878). The big year was 1974, when 203 of the 374 went on the list. The rest is about typical: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; it also has 4 scheduled monuments; and 16% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.