Hazlitt House · Photo: Nabokov. Required citation is: "Photo by Tom Oates, 2009 · CC BY-SA 3.0

History of Wem · Historic England

89 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade II*

On the Historic England list, all of them stand inside Wem’s built-up area, 142 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 1 scheduled monument. We have photos of 6 of its listed buildings. 17% of its homes were built before 1919. Wem grades A− for history: #7 of 19 in Shropshire.

3Grade II*1scheduled monument 21on High Street

Listed buildings

142 per 10,000 residents

Grade I

exceptional interest

Grade II*

more than special interest

Scheduled monuments

nationally important sites

Homes built before 1919

17%

typical UK town 15%

In pictures

Wem in 7 photos

Nearly every Grade I and II* building, photographed. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.

Church of St Peter and St PaulGrade II* listed

Wem Castle: a motte castle immediately south west of St Peter and St Paul's ChurchScheduled monument

Former White Horse HotelGrade II listed

Former National Westminster BankGrade II listed

Morgan LibraryGrade 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.

The map

Where Wem’s history is

Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park, over the age of each neighbourhood’s homes.

Grade II*Scheduled monument

Homes built before 1919, by neighbourhoodunder 10%10–25%25–50%50%+

0 of 4neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 28% were built before 1919.

Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.

89 listed buildings by grade

0 Grade I3 Grade II*86 Grade II

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).

Grade II*

The 3 Grade II* listed buildings in Wem

Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. Every one is photographed. Each opens its own page, with the official list entry.

House · listed 1951Hazlitt HousePhoto: Nabokov. Required citation is: "Photo by Tom Oates, 2009 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Church · listed 1951Church of St Peter and St PaulPhoto: Eirian Evans · CC BY-SA 2.0

Public · listed 1951PARK HOUSE (formerly listed as The Hall, New Street)Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0

Historic streets

High Street has the most listed buildings

Streets by the listed entries with an address on them. One entry can be a whole terrace, so long rows count once.

High Street21 listed

Noble Street16 listed

Chapel Street10 listed

Of the 89 entries, 53 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

What’s protected

Most of Wem’s listed buildings are homes

Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.

Houses, terraces & villas68

Inns, shops & warehouses7

Walls, gates & bridges5

Public & civic buildings5

Churches, chapels & priories2

Street furniture1

Memorials, crosses & tombs1

68 entries (76%) are houses, terraces and villas. 2 are churches, chapels and priories.

Buildings are sorted by words in each entry’s name (church, gate, inn, memorial…): the list’s open data has no building type. An entry named only by its address counts as a house.

Grade II

86 Grade II listed buildings

Most listed buildings are in this grade, which covers buildings of special interest. Open any building to read its official list entry.

All 86 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z

Adams House Astbury House Aston Grange Beech House Bridge over River Roden North of Wem Mill Church Hall Churchyard Entrance Gates and Gate Piers Immediately North-West of Church of St Peter and St Paul Churchyard Gate Piers South of St Peter and St Paul's Church Congregational Chapel Creamore Grove Deer Stalker Restaurant the Old Rectory Former National Westminster Bank Former Offices of Shrewsbury and Wem Brewery Company Ltd Former White Horse Hotel Gate Piers in Front (South) of Wem Conservative Club Hawkstone Arms Public House Landona Farmhouse Morgan Library No. 83 and No. 85 HIGH STREET North Shropshire Printing Company Number 67 and Area Railings Old Hall Old Mill House Roden House Roseville House The Castle Hotel The Drayton Gate and Adjoining Stables to East The Hollies War Memorial Wem Conservative Club Wem Mill Wemsbrook Lodge White Lion Public House 14 and 16, Chapel Street 17, Chapel Street 19 and 21, Chapel Street 19 and 21, High Street 2, High Street 20, Noble Street 23 Chapel Street 23, Noble Street 24, Chapel Street 24, Noble Street 26, Chapel Street 26, Noble Street 27, High Street 28, Chapel Street 29, Noble Street 3 Crown Street 3 and 5 Chapel Street 3, New Street 30, Noble Street 31, Noble Street 32 and 34, Chapel Street 34 Noble Street 34 and 36, High Street 37, High Street 4, High Street 4, Noble Street 40 and 42, High Street 40 and 42, Noble Street 40, Aston Street 41, Noble Street 44 and 46, High Street 44, Noble Street 46 and 48, Noble Street 47 and 49, High Street 50 and 52, High Street 56 and 58, High Street 6 and 8 Chapel Street 60, Noble Street 61 and 63, Noble Street 62, High Street 63, New Street 64, High Street 68, High Street 69, High Street 70 High Street 71 and 71A, High Street 72, 74 and 76, High Street 73, High Street 78, High Street 8 and 10, Market Street 8-10 Noble Street 91 High Street and front area railings 93, High Street

Conservation areas

1 conservation area covers 9.1% of Wem

Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.

Wem 199020 ha

20 hain conservation areas, of 218 ha inside the built-up area.

83 of the 89 listed buildings stand in one.

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.

How the list grew

More than half of Wem’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1983

The year each building now on the list was first listed.

1983 · 701951 · 16

19501960197019801990200020102020

The first 16 entries were listed in 1951. 70 came in 1983, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.

Monuments & landscapes

Monuments, parks and gardens

Designations that overlap the town by a tenth of their area or half a hectare.

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.

Wem Castle: a motte castle immediately south west of St Peter and St Paul's Church

History Grade

Wem grades A− for history

Protected heritage and the age of the town’s homes, against all UK towns.

Protected heritage, for its size and in all (94 points, 150 per 10,000 residents)More than 83% of UK towns

Homes built before 1919 (17%)More than 52% of UK towns

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.

Neighbours

Listed buildings in the places around Wem

Town	People	Listed	Grade I	History
Wem	6,287	89	0	A⁻
Prees	1,013	28	0	A
Prees Higher Heath	1,226	0	0	D
Shawbury	1,962	14	1	B⁻
Bomere Heath	1,364	0	0	C⁻
Baschurch	2,007	18	0	B
Whitchurch	9,856	103	1	A
Ellesmere	4,268	106	1	A

In brief

Wem in brief

Measured per resident, Wem has more listed heritage than 83% of UK towns. In all there are 89 listed buildings, including Hazlitt House. High Street alone has 21 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1990.

Of the whole list, 76% are houses, terraces and villas. More than half went on the list in a single year, 1983: 70 of 89. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: like most towns its size, it has no Grade I building; Edward Whalley-Tooker (1863) and John Astley (1720) were born here before 1900; and it also has a scheduled monument.

Questions about Wem’s history

How many listed buildings are there in Wem?

Historic England lists 89 buildings inside Wem’s built-up area: 0 Grade I, 3 Grade II* and 86 Grade II.

Which street in Wem has the most listed buildings?

High Street (21), Noble Street (16) and Chapel Street (10) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.

Are there scheduled monuments in Wem?

Yes, 1 scheduled monument, including Wem Castle: a motte castle immediately south west of St Peter and St Paul's Church.

How many conservation areas are there in Wem?

1, covering about 20 hectares of the town. The largest is Wem.

When were Wem’s buildings listed?

The first in 1951; the most, 70, in 1983.

How old are the homes in Wem?

17% of homes were built before 1919 and 22% before 1940, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records (March 2025).

© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The National Heritage List for England is the official, up-to-date register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites in England; check an entry on Historic England’s website before relying on it.

Sources: 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 · Historic England conservation areas (supplied by local planning authorities; October 2026). 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.