Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Walking, cycling and public transport carry 12% of commuters. Some 1,394 people live in this village, in Wiltshire, South West.
Sherston is a safe place by the numbers (A): 7.2 violent or sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, plus 7.4 home and vehicle crimes. Add schools to its strengths: primary results beat 87% of towns in England. Housing is expensive: the median home sold for £572,500, 9.6 years of area income. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: C+ for walkability and B− for hazard risk.
Figures: crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2021 · flood risk, Environment Agency. With fewer than 2,500 residents, Sherston has subject grades but no overall one.
The 3 things Sherston does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Sherston is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists them inside Sherston’s built-up area, along with 1 scheduled monument.
40% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Sherston.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 4 of them, Grade I 1. Sherston’s listed buildings include the Church of the Holy Cross, Grade I. It has 416 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents. Of the town’s land, 47% lies in conservation areas, above both Wiltshire’s towns (10%) and England’s towns (7%).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
There is one school here; it is shown below. At the 2 primary schools within 3 km, 70% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Its one primary school teaches 127 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sherston CofE Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 127 | A |
Among the 1,541 UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people, Sherston has less crime per resident than 88% of them. Reported offences in the town came to 24 over twelve months to August 2026; nuisance and anti-social incidents added 11. Violence and sexual offences accounted for 46% of recorded crime.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
Disability touches 14% of Sherston’s population; what’s more, at the census, 3.1% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, below both Wiltshire’s towns (4.4%) and England’s towns (5.2%). One GP practice serves the town; nearly nine in ten patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Sherston is Royal United Hospital Bath, 14.8 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Sherston | Wiltshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 87% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.1% | 4.4% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 14% | 17% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Social housing holds 10% of households, below both Wiltshire’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%). 76 standard sales inside Sherston’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £572,500. Private rents average £1,082 a month across the Wiltshire council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £666,250 | 28 |
| Semi-detached | £405,000 | 19 |
| Terraced | £400,000 | 29 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 47% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
There are 0.6 jobs in Sherston for each resident in work. 85% of commuters drove, higher than both Wiltshire’s towns (77%) and England’s towns (70%). Working from home was the norm for 47% of workers at the census. About nearly a tenth of its commuters stay in Sherston for work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
People aged 15 to 24 make up 8.2% of the town, lower than both Wiltshire’s towns (10%) and England’s towns (12%). Retirement age and beyond: 25% of residents are 65 or older. Line up the people of Sherston by age and the one in the middle is 49. Under 15: 17% of residents.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Sherston | Wiltshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.2% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 18% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 32% | 27% | 25% |
| 65+ | 25% | 19% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 16% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 3.9% | 5.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 45% | 31% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Wiltshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sherston | 1,394 | — | — | C | A | A |
| Hawkesbury Upton | 1,001 | 4.7 | — | D | A | A |
| Malmesbury | 7,184 | 4.8 | A+ | B | B+ | A− |
| Tetbury | 6,454 | 5.2 | B− | C− | B− | A− |
| Sutton Benger | 1,270 | 7.3 | — | B− | A− | A+ |
| Wotton-under-Edge | 4,966 | 7.3 | A− | C+ | B | A− |
| Avening | 1,054 | 7.5 | — | C− | A | A |
| Kingswood | 1,409 | 7.6 | — | B− | A− | A |
Hawkesbury Upton, Sutton Benger, Avening and Kingswood have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 17.1 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Church of the Holy Cross. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £572,500, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: terraced houses £400,000, semi-detached houses £405,000 and detached houses £666,250.
Primary results beat 87% of towns in England (Department for Education, Key Stage 2). One state school is inside the town; places are handled by Wiltshire council.
Village in Wiltshire, England
Sherston is a built-up area of 1,394 people, in the Wiltshire council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · 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. 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.