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The county of West Sussex in South East England has 176 Grade I listed buildings. Such buildings are described by English Heritage, the authority responsible for their designation, as "of exceptional interest [and] sometimes considered to be internationally important". Grade I is the highest of the three grades of listed status in England: about 2.5% (or 9,300) of the country's 374,000 listed buildings have this designation.
West Sussex, a non-metropolitan county, is divided for administrative purposes into seven local government districts, as marked on the map:
In England, a building or structure is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (a successor to the 1947 act).[1] English Heritage, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of this department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues.[2] There are three grades of listing status. Grade I, the highest, is defined as being of "exceptional interest"; Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest, is used for buildings of "special interest".[3] As of July 2009, about 374,000 buildings in England were listed. Around 92% of these had the lowest designation, Grade II; 5.5% were listed at Grade II*; and about 2.5% had the highest grade.[3]
Listed status gives buildings a degree of protection from unapproved alteration, demolition or other changes.[3] Local authorities must consult English Heritage when an application for alteration of a Grade I-listed building is made.[4]
Media related to Grade I listed buildings in West Sussex at Wikimedia Commons