74 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I

Church of the Holy CrossGrade I listedMoot HallGrade II* listed5, New StreetGrade II listedAbbey BuildingGrade II listedThe Dun Cow InnGrade II listed+7See 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).

High Street24 listed · 4 II*

Sheaf Street12 listed · 3 II*

New Street5 listed · 1 II*

Market Place4 listed

Of the 74 entries, 50 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

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 22 entries were listed in 1953, 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings among them. 45 came in 1977, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 2 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.

2.2% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1965–72, which added 21% 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 (10 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

John Smith

James Slade

William Westbrooke Burton

John Rose Holden

Charles John Wright Barton

William Bunting

Gunner Higham

Reginald Foort

1650170017501800185019001950

William Westbrooke Burton1794–1888 · Judge and President of the Legislative Council, New South Wales, Aust…

John Smith1652–1742 · English mezzotint engraver (c. 1652 – c. 1742)

JH

John Rose Holden1821–1879 · Canadian politician (1821–1879)

CB

Charles John Wright Barton1852–1935 · Farmer, businessman, mayor, town clerk (1852-1935)

Reginald Foort1893–1980 · Dutch organist

James Slade1783–1860 · British clergyman (1783-1860)

William Bunting1874–1947 · English rugby union footballer

GH

Gunner Higham1887– · Association football player (1887-)

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

Daventry has 74 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I, including Church of the Holy Cross. Only 83 of the 360 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. On High Street alone there are 24 listed buildings. Its older streets lie in 3 conservation areas, the first designated in 1968.

Of the whole list, 78% are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 8 people born here before 1900, the best known include William Westbrooke Burton (1794), John Smith (1652) and John Rose Holden (1821). Its homes are mostly newer: 2.5% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and it also has a scheduled monument.