Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town in Lincolnshire, East Midlands, home to 7,293 people. Mortgage-free owners make up 41% of households.
Horncastle’s weakest is jobs & income: the mean household earns £42,829 a year. Where it does best is walkability — 25% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Homes sell for a median £208,995, about 5.2 years of what households in the East Lindsey council area earn. Put together, the subjects come to a C overall, ranking #42 of 61 in Lincolnshire. It comes out better than 27% of UK towns.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
The 3 things Horncastle does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Horncastle is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 118 buildings inside Horncastle’s built-up area, 6 of them Grade I, and 1 scheduled monument.
24% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1910.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Horncastle.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Homes from before 1919 make up nearly a quarter of the total. Horncastle’s listed buildings include Roman Wall, Grade I. Relative to its size, Horncastle keeps 162 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, higher than both Lincolnshire’s towns (42) and England’s towns (39). Also worth knowing: at the top of the list, 6 are Grade I and 2 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle’s results beat 94% of schools in England like it. Some 1,826 pupils attend the town’s one primary and two secondaries. Of its 4 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. At the one primary school within 3 km, 56% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horncastle Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 417 | C |
| Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, HorncastleLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 788 | A |
Among adults, 24% have a degree. Children under 15 make up 15%, below Lincolnshire’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. Young adults of 15 to 24 account for 9.2% of the town. Residents of Horncastle have a median age of 49.2.
52% women, 48% men
About 91 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Horncastle | Lincolnshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 16% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.2% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 23% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 27% | 25% |
| 65+ | 27% | 22% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 21% | 21% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.9% | 6.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 24% | 25% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Lincolnshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 17% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working mainly from home: 17% of workers, lower than both Lincolnshire’s towns (20%) and England’s towns (31%). By car: that was how 73% of commuters travelled at the census. About 37% of its commuters stay in Horncastle for work. Two in five commuters travelled under 5 km to work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
One GP practice serves the town; four in five patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. At the census, just over three quarters of people in Horncastle called their health good or very good, lower than both Lincolnshire’s towns (79%) and England’s towns (82%). Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 6.8% of the town. The nearest A&E to Horncastle is Pilgrim Hospital, 15.5 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Horncastle | Lincolnshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 79% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.8% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 23% | 20% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · A young population flatters these answers, which are not age-adjusted; the Health Grade instead uses measures that allow for age, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Violence and sexual offences were 48% of the crimes. Burglary and damage came to 11.5 per 1,000 residents a year, above both Lincolnshire’s towns (7.8) and England’s towns (9.4). Police recorded 447 crimes inside Horncastle’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 101 reports of anti-social behaviour.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
513 standard sales inside Horncastle’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £208,995. Social housing holds 14% of households. Private rents average £704 a month across the East Lindsey council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £287,500 | 252 |
| Semi-detached | £180,000 | 123 |
| Terraced | £150,000 | 127 |
| Flat or maisonette | £107,000 | 11 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
118 listed buildings in Horncastle, 6 of them Grade I.
Roman Wall to Rear of the Manor House: Photo: Richard Croft · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St Mary: Photo: Richard Croft · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Rodney Hotel: Photo: Bob Harvey · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Old Court House: Photo: David P Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
14 notable people were born in Horncastle.
Alec Brader: Magicman0361, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Henry Simpson Lunn: National Photo Company, Public domain · William Blaxton: User:Daderot, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horncastle | 7,293 | — | C | C+ | C | C |
| Woodhall Spa | 4,685 | 5.8 | B | D | A | C+ |
| Coningsby and Tattershall | 5,511 | 7.5 | C | B− | B− | C+ |
| Bardney | 2,069 | 8.7 | — | A | C+ | C+ |
| Spilsby | 3,671 | 8.8 | D | B− | C− | C− |
| Stickney | 1,108 | 9.4 | — | C− | C+ | C+ |
| Wragby | 1,859 | 9.6 | — | B− | C+ | B− |
| Billinghay | 2,198 | 11 | — | A+ | A− | C− |
Bardney, Stickney, Wragby and Billinghay have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 6.6 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Roman Wall. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
It has more crime per resident than most places its size: 67% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people report less.
Town in Lincolnshire, England
Horncastle is a built-up area of 7,293 people, in the East Lindsey council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.