225 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I

Parish Church of St Peter and St PaulGrade I listedBeck Isle MuseumGrade II* listedBuilding on West side of former Goods Yard of Pickering Railway StationGrade II listedKeld Head Farmhouse (East)Grade II listedPickering BridgeGrade II listed+2See 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.

c. 1921

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).

Of the 225 entries, 166 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 9 entries were listed in 1950, 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings among them. 209 came in 1975, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.

1 scheduled monument

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

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.

Francis Nicholson

John Lockwood Kipling

Thomas Crosby

William Coverdale

Arthur Lee Dixon

Thomas Aston Blakelock

175017751800182518501875190019251950

John Lockwood Kipling1837–1911 · British artist (1837-1911)

AD

Arthur Lee Dixon1867–1955 · British mathematician

Francis Nicholson1753–1844 · British artist (1753-1844)

WC

William Coverdale1862–1934 · English County cricketer (1862-1934)

TC

Thomas Crosby1840–1914 · English Methodist missionary (1840–1914)

TB

Thomas Aston Blakelock1883–1974 · Canadian politician

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

For its size, Pickering has more listed heritage than 94% of UK towns. In all there are 225 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I, including Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul. Only 85 of the 794 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Its older streets lie in 2 conservation areas, the first designated in 1973.

Of the whole list, 85% are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 6 people born here before 1900, the best known include John Lockwood Kipling (1837), Arthur Lee Dixon (1867) and Francis Nicholson (1753). More than half went on the list in a single year, 1975: 209 of 225. Beyond that, it also has a scheduled monument; and 18% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.