48 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade II*

Church of St AndrewGrade II* listedChurch of St Mary MajorGrade II* listed

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.

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 17 entries were listed in 1961. 28 came in 1987, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.

2 scheduled monuments

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.

Roger Bacon

William Arnold

Benedict Arnold

Elizabeth Rowe

120013501500165018001950

RB

Roger Bacon1220–1292 · English polymath, philosopher and friar (c.1219/20–c.1292)

Elizabeth Rowe1674–1737 · Poet and writer

Benedict Arnold1615–1678 · Colonial governor of Rhode Island (1615-1678)

WA

William Arnold1586–1674 · English settler of the Colony of Rhode Island

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

Measured per resident, Ilchester has more listed heritage than 83% of UK towns. All told, the list holds 48 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1976.

Of the 4 people born here before 1900, the best known include Roger Bacon (1220), Elizabeth Rowe (1674) and Benedict Arnold (1615). The big year was 1987, when 28 of the 48 went on the list. Beyond that, like most towns its size, it has no Grade I building; it also has 2 scheduled monuments; and 11% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.