118 listed buildings, 6 of them Grade I

Chapel to Clare PrioryGrade I listedClare PrioryGrade I listedNethergate HotelGrade I listedParish Church of Ss Peter and PaulGrade I listedThe Ancient HouseGrade I listed+11See 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.

High Street11 listed · 1 II*

Market Hill11 listed

Bridewell Street8 listed

Callis Street8 listed

Church Street7 listed

Nethergate Street7 listed

Of the 118 entries, 55 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 1 entry was listed in 1958, 1 of the 6 Grade I buildings among them. 64 came in 1961. Only 2 have 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.

28% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1965–72, which added 18% 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 (0 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Gilbert Fitz Richard

Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare

George Digby Barker

1050120013501500165018001950

GR

Gilbert Fitz Richard1065–1115 · Anglo-Norman baron in Wales

RC

Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare1094–1136 · Norman nobleman

George Digby Barker1833–1914 · British Army general

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

Few towns are as rich in listed heritage as Clare: per resident it has more than 95% of UK towns. All told, the list holds 118 listed buildings, 6 of them Grade I. Its housing is old: 28% of homes date from before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. Its Grade I buildings cluster together: 6 of them stand within 400 m of Nethergate Hotel.

Only 3 of the 1,402 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. High Street alone has 11 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1974. The rest is about typical: it also has 2 scheduled monuments.