'Listed' buildings are designated by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport as being of 'special architectural or historic interest'. Records of listed buildings are maintained by English Heritage, the government's lead body on the historic environment.

There are about 360,000 listed buildings in England, and alongside 197 palaces, 425 castles, 14,393 churches and 3,369 country houses, there are many unusual listed buildings/structures throughout England, including:

• 52 garden sheds
• 35 fishponds
• 1 racing pigeon loft
• 3,800 mile posts and stones
• 11 army camps
• 9 skating rinks
• 2,195 telephone boxes
• 489 pigsties
• 663 lavatories
• 192 post boxes
• 982 lamp posts

Buildings are 'listed' for a variety of reasons and may qualify for listing under more than one of these criteria:

• Architectural interest: listing aims to include all buildings of importance to the nation for the interest of their architectural design, decoration and craftsmanship;
• Historic interest: this includes buildings which display important aspects of the nation's social, cultural, economic or military history;
• Historical associations: buildings with close historical ties with nationally important people (which may include the architect) or events;
• Group value: particularly where buildings together make up an important architectural or historical unity or a fine example of planning (for example, squares, terraces, model villages);
• Age and rarity: the older the building and the fewer surviving examples, the more likely it is to have historical importance. Hence all buildings with significant original features dating from before 1700 and most from between 1700 and 1840 are listed.

Listed buildings are classified in grades to show their relative importance. Grade I buildings are held to be of 'paramount importance' and make up less than 2.5 per cent of the total. Buildings of Grade II* are deemed to be 'of outstanding interest' and make up a further 5.5 per cent. All the other buildings are listed as Grade II and assessed as being of special architectural or historical interest in a national context.

Within Cumbria are the following approximate number of listed buildings, listed by local authority:

Listed buildings in Cumbria :

• Grade 1
• Grade 2*
• All, including grade 2, listed by parish

There was a millennium project, Images of England, organised by the National Monuments Record, the public archive of English Heritage, to photograph and put on the internet, pictures of as many as possible of these listed buildings.

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• The Buildings of Cumbria