Turvey's Listed Buildings

Turvey’s Listed Buildings

Turvey has 71 listed buildings, although the term “building” is used loosely as the listing includes items such as Jonah and his “Partner” and the railings opposite Ye Three Fyshes.  At one time there were three grades of listed buildings, now there are only two.  Turvey has two Grade 1 listed buildings, All Saints Church and Turvey House. A glance at Turvey’s list, shows some surprising omissions such as Nell’s Well. An attempt was made by Turvey History Society to list Nell’s Well, but the Society was informed that the site would only be considered for listing if it was under threat of demolition.

Listed Buildings

A listed building, or listed structure, is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England. The first attempts at giving protection to ‘ancient monuments’ came in the form of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 as the Government at the time were reluctant to restrict what owners could do to their properties.

The threat of German bombing during World War II gave rise to the creation of a list of buildings deemed to be of particular architectural merit. The listing was to be used as a means of determining whether a particular building should be rebuilt if it was damaged. The current, more comprehensive, listing was developed from the wartime system and enacted by a provision in the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 .

The Criteria

For a building or structure to be listed it has to meet one of the following four criteria:

• Age and rarity: The older a building is, the more likely it is to be listed. All buildings erected before 1700 that “contain a significant proportion of their original fabric” will be listed. Most buildings built between 1700 and 1840 are listed. After 1840 more selection is exercised and “particularly careful selection” is applied after 1945. Buildings less than 30 years old are rarely listed unless they are of outstanding quality and under threat.
• Aesthetic merits: i.e. the appearance of a building. However, buildings that have little visual appeal may be listed on grounds of representing particular aspects of social or economic history.
• Selectivity: where a large number of buildings of a similar type survive, the policy is only to list the most representative or significant examples.
• National interest: significant or distinctive regional buildings; e.g. those that represent a nationally important but localised industry.

Implications

Listing means there will be extra control over what changes can be made to a building’s interior and exterior. Owners will need to apply for Listed Building Consent for most types of work that affect the ‘special architectural or historic interest’ of their home.

Listing covers a whole building, including the interior, unless parts of it are specifically excluded in the list description.

It can also cover:

• Other attached structures and fixtures
• Later extensions or additions
• Pre-1948 buildings on land attached to the building (in the planning system, the term ‘curtilage’ is used to describe this attached land).

Because all listed buildings are different and unique, what is actually covered by a listing can vary quite widely.

Historic Environment Record

Buildings, monuments, demolished buildings and findspots (locations where significant archaeological finds have been recorded) which do not meet the four criteria for listing may be recorded in the Historical Environmental Record. A companion article to this one explores Turvey’s Historic Environment Record.

Turvey’s List

Click on a particular ‘building’ to go to the Bedford Borough Council Collection in our archive which contains detailed data on each building. The buildings are listed in relation to the 5 heritage walks, designated Eastern, Northern, Southern, Station End and Western.

Eastern

Northern

Southern

Station End

Western