26 listed buildings

Former Bat and Ball Public HouseGrade II listedValley HouseGrade II listedStuart CottageGrade II listedWoodcoteGrade II listedChrist ChurchGrade 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 9 entries were listed in 1950. 15 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.

35% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1945–54, which added 10% 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 (19 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Edward Colebrooke

William Hutchings

Frederick Hutchings

Kenneth Hutchings

William Stapley

Harold Hever

Frank Weare

18501875190019251950

Kenneth Hutchings1882–1916 · English cricketer (1882-1916)

WH

William Hutchings1879–1948 · English cricketer (1879-1948)

FH

Frederick Hutchings1880–1934 · Cricketer (1880-1934)

HH

Harold Hever1895–1958 · Cricketer (1895-1958)

EC

Edward Colebrooke1858–1939 · (1858-1939)

WS

William Stapley1887–1964 · Association football player (1887-1964)

FW

Frank Weare1896–1971 · British flying ace

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

Old houses are part of Southborough’s character: 37% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 26 listed buildings, including Church of St Thomas. A conservation area protects part of it. Of the whole list, 69% are houses, terraces and villas.

Kenneth Hutchings (1882), William Hutchings (1879) and Frederick Hutchings (1880) are among the 7 people born here before 1900. More than half went on the list in a single year, 1986: 15 of 26. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns.