Photo: Trevor Harris · CC BY-SA 2.0

History of Eye · Historic England

140 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I

On the Historic England list, all of them stand inside Eye’s built-up area, 633 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 1 scheduled monument. 31% of its homes were built before 1919. We have photos of 7 of its listed buildings. Eye grades A+ for history.

3Grade I 4Grade II*1scheduled monument 15on Castle Street

Listed buildings

140

633 per 10,000 residents

Grade I

exceptional interest

Grade II*

more than special interest

Scheduled monuments

nationally important sites

Homes built before 1919

31%

typical UK town 15%

In pictures

Eye 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 I listed

Eye CastleGrade I listed

The GuildhallGrade I listed

5, Broad StreetGrade II* listed

Stayer HouseGrade 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 Eye’s history is

Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park.

Grade IGrade II*Scheduled monument

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

140 listed buildings by grade

3 Grade I4 Grade II*133 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.

Grade I

The 3 Grade I listed buildings in Eye

Buildings of exceptional interest, about 2.5% of all listed buildings. Every one is photographed. Each opens its own page, with the official list entry.

Church · listed 1951Church of St Peter and St PaulPhoto: Robert Edwards · CC BY-SA 2.0

Public · listed 1951Eye CastlePhoto: Bob Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0

Public · listed 1951The GuildhallPhoto: Richard Slessor · CC BY-SA 2.0

Grade II*

The 4 Grade II* listed buildings in Eye

Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. Every one is photographed.

House · listed 1951Stayer HousePhoto: Sandy Gerrard · CC BY-SA 2.0

House · listed 1951The Cottage White HousePhoto: Sandy Gerrard · CC BY-SA 2.0

Public · listed 1971Town HallPhoto: Adrian Cable · CC BY-SA 2.0

House · listed 19515, Broad StreetPhoto: Sandy Gerrard · CC BY-SA 2.0

Historic streets

Castle 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.

Castle Street15 listed

Broad Street11 listed · 1 II*

Church Street10 listed

Lambseth Street8 listed

Lowgate Street7 listed

Of the 140 entries, 61 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

What’s protected

Most of Eye’s listed buildings are homes

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

Houses, terraces & villas112

Walls, gates & bridges9

Public & civic buildings7

Inns, shops & warehouses4

Churches, chapels & priories3

Memorials, crosses & tombs3

Street furniture2

112 entries (80%) are houses, terraces and villas. 3 are churches, chapels and priories, including 1 of the 3 Grade I buildings.

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

133 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 133 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z

Albion House Angel House Apsley Cottage Bank Buildings Bank Cottage Barn at Junction with Church Lane Including Wall to South and Wall Adjoining Number 5 Broad Street Bedingfield Almshouses Bedingfield Lodge Boundary Walls and Gates to St Peter and St Pauls Churchyard Bridge House Bromeland Cottage Brown and May Fishmongers Castle House Chandos Lodge Conifer Cottage Crinkle Crankle Wall South of Number 48 Stanley House Cross House Including Front Railings Dormer Cottage Dove House Endleigh Endways Eye Theatre Eye War Memorial Garden House Approximately 15 Metres North of Number 24 Mulberry House Garden Wall Extending West from Number 52 Stayer House Garden Wall and Garden House Approximately 45 Metres North East of Chandos Lodge Gatehouse Grotto Approximately 30 Metres South East of Langton Grove Grotto Approximately 40 Metres South South East of Langton Grove Heyden House Hill Cottage Hillside Iron Gates and Lavendar Cottage K6 Telephone Kiosk Kerrison Memorial Lambseth House Langton Grove Linden House Magdalen House Mallow House Midland Bank Moiety Cottage Monument to George Edwards 5 Metres North of Church of St Peter and St Paul Monument to Marianne Sapio 5 Metres North of Church of St Peter and Paul Mulberry House Mustardpot Barn Norcon Number 1 (Lilliput) and Number 3 Number 2 Including Front Railings Oak Cottage Post Office Queens Head Public House Queensborough Red House Regency House Richmond House Rookery House Rose Cottage St Lukes House Stable Block to East of Number 52 Stayer House Stanley House Sunnyside The Cottage the Old Vicarage The Granary Approximately 50 Meters North of Iron Gates and Lavender Cottage The Hexagon The Thatched House The Town Clerks Cottage The Vicarage Victoria Buildings White House White Lion House Willow House York Cottage 1 and 1A, Broad Street 1 and 3, Lowgate Street 1, 2 and 3, The Rookery 1, Castle Street 1, Church Street 10 and 11, The Cross 10A, The Cross 11 and 13, Broad Street 11, Castle Street 12, Lambseth Street 13 and 15, Church Street 13, Castle Street 13, Lambseth Street 14 and 16, Magdalen Street 14, 16 and 18, Church Street 15 and 17, Lowgate Street 15, Broad Street 15, Castle Street 15, Lambseth Street 16 and 18, Broad Street 18 and 20, Lambseth Street 18, 20 and 22, Magdalen Street 18, Castle Street 19, Castle Street 2, Lowgate Street 20 and 22, Church Street 20, Castle Street 22, Castle Street 23 and 25, Lowgate Street 23, Castle Street 24 and 26, Church Street 24, Lambseth Street 25, Castle Street 28, Church Street 3, Broad Street 31 and 33, Castle Street 34, 36 and 38, Castle Street 35 and 36, Wellington Road 37, Church Street 39, Church Street 4, Broad Street 4, Cross Street 4, Lambseth Street 4, Lowgate Street 40 and 42, Church Street 42, Castle Street 46, Castle Street 4A, Broad Street 5, Castle Street 6, Broad Street 6, Lambseth Street 6, Lowgate Street 68 and 69, Langton Green 7, Broad Street 7-13, Lowgate Street 81, Langton Green 9 and 11, Church Street 9 and 11, Lambseth Street 9, Broad Street 9, Buckshorn Lane

Conservation areas

1 conservation area covers 20% of Eye

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

Eye 197017 ha

17 hain conservation areas, of 86 ha inside the built-up area.

125 of the 140 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

67 of Eye’s 140 listed buildings were added in 1971

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

1971 · 671951 · 341998 · 34

19501960197019801990200020102020

The first 34 entries were listed in 1951, 3 of the 3 Grade I buildings among them. 67 came in 1971, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 2 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.

Eye Castle, the remains of a motte and bailey castle and its defensive ditch 120m west of St Peter's Church

History Grade

Eye 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 (152 points, 687 per 10,000 residents)More than 95% of UK towns

Homes built before 1919 (31%)More than 85% 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.

Homes by age

31% of Eye’s homes were built before 1919

Every home by when it was built, from council tax records, against England & Wales (the dark tick).

30%

Before 1900

0.9%

1900–18

0.9%

1919–29

2.7%

1930s

4.4%

1945–54

3.5%

1955–64

8.8%

1965–72

9.7%

1973–82

8.8%

1983–92

7.1%

1993–99

11%

2000–08

5.3%

2009–15

7.1%

2016–25

EyeEngland & Wales

30% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 2000–08, which added 11% 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.

Towns its size

Eye has the 16th most Grade I buildings of 1,425 towns its size

Places of 1,000–4,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.

Appleby-in-Westmorland6

Eye3

#16 of 1,425for listed buildings per resident (633 per 10,000). Burford, Painswick and Chipping Campden lead.

15 have more. The typical town its size has 0.

Neighbours

Listed buildings in the places around Eye

Town	People	Listed	Grade I	History
Eye	2,211	140	3	A⁺
Scole	1,037	17	1	B⁺
Diss	9,599	160	1	A⁻
Gislingham	1,172	29	1	A
Roydon (South Norfolk)	1,117	10	1	C⁺
Dickleburgh	1,166	35	1	A
Stradbroke	1,190	41	0	A
Mendlesham	1,018	25	1	A

In brief

Eye in brief

Few towns are as rich in listed heritage as Eye: per resident it has more than 95% of UK towns. In all there are 140 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I. Its housing is old: 31% of homes date from before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. Eye Castle sits at the heart of it all, with 3 of the town’s Grade I buildings within 400 m.

Only 15 of the 1,425 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Castle Street alone has 15 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1970. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: Charles Cunningham (1755) and John Gowing (1835) were born here before 1900; and it also has a scheduled monument.

Questions about Eye’s history

How many listed buildings are there in Eye?

Historic England lists 140 buildings inside Eye’s built-up area: 3 Grade I, 4 Grade II* and 133 Grade II.

What are the Grade I listed buildings in Eye?

3, including Church of St Peter and St Paul, Eye Castle and The Guildhall.

Which street in Eye has the most listed buildings?

Castle Street (15), Broad Street (11) and Church Street (10) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.

Are there scheduled monuments in Eye?

Yes, 1 scheduled monument, including Eye Castle, the remains of a motte and bailey castle and its defensive ditch 120m west of St Peter's Church.

How many conservation areas are there in Eye?

1, covering about 17 hectares of the town. The largest is Eye.

When were Eye’s buildings listed?

The first in 1951; the most, 67, in 1971.

How old are the homes in Eye?

31% of homes were built before 1919 and 34% 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.