IChurch · listed 1966Church of St Michael the ArchangelPhoto: Mike Searle · CC BY-SA 2.0
Old Ship Hotel · Photo: Nicola K. Reiss · CC BY-SA 4.0A+History Grade
History of Mere · Historic England
71 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I
Historic England counts them inside Mere’s built-up area, 253 for every 10,000 residents. Grade II covers 67 of Mere’s listed buildings. 32% of its homes were built before 1919. We have photos of 6 of its listed buildings. Mere grades A+ for history: #3 of 30 in Wiltshire.
Listed buildings
71
253 per 10,000 residents
Grade I
1
exceptional interest
Grade II*
3
more than special interest
Scheduled monuments
0
nationally important sites
Homes built before 1919
32%
typical UK town 15%
In pictures
Mere in 6 photos
Nearly every Grade I and II* building, photographed. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.
Church of St Michael the ArchangelGrade I listed
Clock TowerGrade II listed
Glebe HouseGrade II listed
Glebe CottageGrade II listed
Spa Shop and Waltons of Mere (Walton Building)Grade II listed+1See all photosPhotos 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 Mere’s history is
Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park.
Grade IGrade II*
Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.
71 listed buildings by grade
1 Grade I3 Grade II*67 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 Grade I listed building in Mere
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.
Grade II*
The 3 Grade II* listed buildings in Mere
Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. 1 is photographed.
II*Inns & shops · listed 1966Old Ship HotelPhoto: Nicola K. Reiss · CC BY-SA 4.0
House · listed 1966Dewes House
Church · listed 1966The Chantry
What’s protected
Most of Mere’s listed buildings are homes
Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.
Houses, terraces & villas38
Churches, chapels & priories10
Walls, gates & bridges7
Inns, shops & warehouses6
Memorials, crosses & tombs4
Public & civic buildings3
Street furniture3
38 entries (54%) are houses, terraces and villas. 10 are churches, chapels and priories, including 1 of the 1 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
67 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 67 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z
Balcony CottageBlue RiderBoundary Wall Adjoining Stable Block to the ChantryBoundary Wall and Gate Attached to No 1, The GrangeChantry CottageCharnel House in the Churchyard of the Church of St MichaelChurchyard Cross 9 Metres North of North Porch of Church of St MichaelClock TowerCross HouseCrosswaysDean's OrchardDewes LodgeDownleaseEdward Dolling Monument, Circa 10 Metres East of North East Corner of Church of Church of St MichaelEntrance Doorway and Wall to Left of Lecture HallEntrance Way to Dewes HouseFives Court WallGate Piers, Gates, And Boundary Wall to Churchyard St MichaelGateway and Walls to Courtyard CottageGeorgian HouseGlebe CottageGlebe HouseHabberleyHatherleighHomestead and Barbican CottageHouse Adjoining East of Potters CroftJean's Tv and Electrical Shop and House Adjoining Mere CottageJohn Phillips Monument Circa 10 Metres South of the Tower in the Churchyard of St MichaelLatimer HouseLibrary and MuseumLodge at Castle Hill Service StationLordsmead MillManderleyMemorial Cross to Julia Elizabeth Chafyn GroveMere CottageMere War MemorialMethodist ChurchMilestone (House to Left of Milestone Cottage)Milestone Adjacent to Milestone CottageMilestone CottagePickwicksPotters CroftR and M Cochran and House Adjoining to RightR and M White and Welcome HouseRidge HouseSchool the Grove BuildingSpa Shop and Waltons of Mere (Walton Building)St Ann'sSt Michael's Cottage Stower Cottage Tower Vieww Unnamed CottageTalbot HotelThe Butt of SherryThe CloseThe Fruit ShopThe GrangeThe House in Salisbury StreetThe Little HouseThe ManseThe Old RectoryThree Unidentified Monuments Circa 3 Metres North of North Aisle of Church of St MichaelTimothy J Thick and VogueTithingsUnidentified Monument Circa 3 Metres North of South Wall to Churchyard of Church of St MichaelUnidentified Monument Circa 4 Metres West of Chafyn Grove Memorial in the Churchyard of the Church of St MichaelUnidentified Monument Circa 5 Metres West of Charnel House to Church of St MichaelWestwayYew Glen1, Pettridge Lane
Conservation areas
1 conservation area covers 21% of Mere
Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.
Mere 197325 ha
25 hain conservation areas, of 117 ha inside the built-up area.
68 of the 71 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 Mere’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1989
The year each building now on the list was first listed.
1989 · 521966 · 16
19501960197019801990200020102020
The first 16 entries were listed in 1966, 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings among them. 52 came in 1989, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.
History Grade
Mere 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 (76 points, 271 per 10,000 residents)More than 86% of UK towns
Homes built before 1919 (32%)More than 86% 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
32% of Mere’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
2.2%
1900–18
2.2%
1919–29
2.9%
1930s
4.4%
1945–54
7%
1955–64
11%
1965–72
9.4%
1973–82
4.2%
1983–92
8.4%
1993–99
10%
2000–08
1.9%
2009–15
6.5%
2016–25
MereEngland & Wales
30% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1965–72, 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 (7 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.
Towns its size
Mere has the 93rd most Grade I buildings of 1,265 towns its size
Places of 2,000–4,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.
Mere1
#125 of 1,265for listed buildings per resident (253 per 10,000). Painswick, Sandwich and Chipping Campden lead.
92 have more. The typical town its size has 0.
Neighbours
Listed buildings in the places around Mere
| Town | People | Listed | Grade I | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mere | 2,808 | 71 | 1 | A+ |
| Gillingham | 11,009 | 41 | 1 | B− |
| Motcombe | 1,366 | 19 | 0 | A− |
| Shaftesbury | 9,163 | 271 | 2 | A |
| Wincanton | 6,744 | 113 | 1 | A− |
| Tisbury | 2,274 | 52 | 5 | A+ |
| Bruton | 2,816 | 132 | 3 | A+ |
| Warminster | 18,018 | 224 | 1 | A− |
In brief
Mere in brief
Old houses are part of Mere’s character: 32% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. In all there are 71 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I, including Church of St Michael the Archangel. Per resident, it has more listed heritage than 86% of UK towns. Only 92 of the 1,265 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings.
A conservation area has protected part of it since 1973. Of the whole list, 54% are houses, terraces and villas. More than half went on the list in a single year, 1989: 52 of 71. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: Edward Henslow (1879) was born here before 1900.
Questions about Mere’s history
How many listed buildings are there in Mere?
Historic England lists 71 buildings inside Mere’s built-up area: 1 Grade I, 3 Grade II* and 67 Grade II.
What are the Grade I listed buildings in Mere?
One: Church of St Michael the Archangel.
How many conservation areas are there in Mere?
1, covering about 25 hectares of the town. The largest is Mere.
When were Mere’s buildings listed?
The first in 1966; the most, 52, in 1989.
How old are the homes in Mere?
32% of homes were built before 1919 and 37% 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.