35 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade II*

Langley MaltingsGrade II listedThe Junction Public HouseGrade II listedChrist ChurchGrade II listedOldbury Public LibraryGrade II listedOldbury CenotaphGrade II listed+1See 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).

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 2 entries were listed in 1950. 13 came in 1979, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 6 have been added in the last 15 years.

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.

4.8% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was the 1930s, which added 27% 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 (102 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

William Tranter

Frederick Bridge

Jeanie A. Welford

Fred Wheldon

Gilbert Smith

Jack Judge

Howard Matthews

Willie Jordan

Bill Jackson

George James

Ernest Masters

Jack Nightingale

1800182518501875190019251950

Jack Judge1878–1938 · British songwriter and music hall entertainer (1878-1938)

Frederick Bridge1844–1924 · English organist, composer, teacher and writer (1844–1924)

Fred Wheldon1869–1924 · English footballer, cricketer (1869-1924)

Jeanie A. Welford1854–1947 · Photographer and first British woman member of Cycle Touring Club

BJ

Bill Jackson1894–1917 · English footballer (1894-1917)

GJ

George James1899–1976 · English footballer (1899-1976)

WT

William Tranter1816–1890 · British gunmaker

GS

Gilbert Smith1869– · Professional footballer (1869-?)

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

Oldbury has 35 listed buildings, including The Big House. A conservation area has protected part of it since 2010. Of the 12 people born here before 1900, the best known include Jack Judge (1878), Frederick Bridge (1844) and Fred Wheldon (1869). Its homes are mostly newer: 8.9% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: it has no Grade I building, where the middle town its size has 1; and per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns.