Old homes in Nelson: 61% built before 1919

The Station HotelGrade II listedLeeds and Liverpool Canal WarehouseGrade II listedChurch of St MaryGrade II listedSpring CottageGrade II listedBoy Scout War MemorialGrade 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 6 entries were listed in 1952. 10 came in 1988, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 3 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.

40% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1900–18, which added 22% 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 (39 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

William Mackenzie

Jimmy Hogan

Jack Haworth

Enos Whittaker

Richard Baird

George Abbott

175017751800182518501875190019251950

Jimmy Hogan1882–1974 · English football coach (1882–1974)

RB

Richard Baird1892–1977 · English footballer (1892-1977)

JH

Jack Haworth1883–1955 · English footballer (1883-1955)

EW

Enos Whittaker1888–1959 · English footballer (1888-1959)

GA

George Abbott1897–1977 · British sailor 1897-1977

William Mackenzie1794–1851 · British civil engineer (1794-1851)

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

More of Nelson’s homes are old than in most places: 61% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 28 listed buildings, including Lower Town House. Its older streets lie in 4 conservation areas, the first designated in 1999. Jimmy Hogan (1882), Richard Baird (1892) and Jack Haworth (1883) are among the 6 people born here before 1900. The rest is about typical: it has no Grade I building, where the middle town its size has 1; and per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns.