Photo: Bryn Holmes · CC BY-SA 2.0Almost everyone in Hurley lives within a 5-minute walk of a park
The Chilterns National Landscape reaches the edge of Hurley. Parks and playing fields in Hurley add up to 3.1 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. 37 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 2.6 for every square kilometre. Hurley grades A for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Hurley?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Hurley’s strongest suit is parks close to every home, followed by protected countryside on the doorstep.
Hurley grades A for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Hurley, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
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Graded, never part of the overall grade (like History and Civic life). It measures what is mapped: OS Open Greenspace leaves out woodland and open-access land that isn’t a park, and OpenStreetMap’s rural paths are more complete in some places than others.
Hurley is 7th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,200 to 1,400 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Hurley stands out most for homes near a park: none of the other 59 has more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hightown Hampshire | A+ | 15.7 | 100% | 3.5 | 58% |
| 2 | Worrall South Yorkshire | A+ | 3.7 | 100% | 5.4 | 21% |
| 3 | Holybourne Hampshire | A+ | 12.2 | 100% | 2.7 | 23% |
| 4 | Wolvercote Oxfordshire | A | 32 | 100% | 5.5 | 0% |
| 5 | Crowmarsh Gifford Oxfordshire | A | 8 | 77% | 3.6 | 60% |
| 6 | Pwll Dyfed | A | 21.6 | 64% | 2.6 | 19% |
| 7 | Hurley Berkshire | A | 3.1 | 100% | 2.6 | 36% |
| 8 | Amberley Gloucestershire | A | 13.7 | 0% | 6.3 | 87% |
| 9 | Charmouth Dorset | A | 2.5 | 82% | 2.3 | 63% |
| 10 | Bere Regis Dorset | A | 39.2 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 11 | Brinscall Lancashire | A | 3.5 | 100% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 12 | Burbage Wiltshire | A | 2.7 | 100% | 1.9 | 100% |
| 13 | Compton Hampshire | A− | 18.8 | 61% | 3.6 | 28% |
| 14 | Upper Caldecote Bedfordshire | A− | 3.7 | 100% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 15 | Bradley Clwyd | A− | 29.9 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 16 | Blean Kent | A− | 5.9 | 80% | 6.5 | 0% |
| 17 | Sherford Devon | A− | 3.2 | 100% | 1.5 | 28% |
| 18 | Auckley South Yorkshire | B+ | 4.9 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 19 | Riseley Bedfordshire | B+ | 2.4 | 100% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 20 | Layer-de-la-Haye Essex | B+ | 9.5 | 79% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 21 | Marshfield Gloucestershire | B+ | 4.9 | 42% | 2.7 | 99% |
| 22 | Welland Worcestershire | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 1.9 | 38% |
| 23 | Abbots Bromley Staffordshire | B | 6.9 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 24 | Lidlington Bedfordshire | B | 1.9 | 100% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 25 | Lingdale North Yorkshire | B− | 1.4 | 100% | 1.7 | 31% |
| 26 | Blakeney Gloucestershire | B− | 2.1 | 68% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 27 | Fowlmere Cambridgeshire | B− | 4.5 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 28 | Burwash East Sussex | B− | 1.5 | 76% | 2.5 | 100% |
| 29 | Pensarn Clwyd | C+ | 13.1 | 45% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 30 | Morton Derbyshire | C+ | 18.3 | 66% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 31 | Belford Northumberland | C+ | 1.2 | 83% | 0.9 | 21% |
| 32 | Perranarworthal Cornwall | C+ | 2.5 | 76% | 1.6 | 19% |
| 33 | Littleton Panell Wiltshire | C+ | 5.3 | 39% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 34 | Stonnall Staffordshire | C+ | 11.5 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 35 | Claverdon Warwickshire | C+ | 1.2 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 36 | Stoke Gabriel Devon | C+ | 1.2 | 70% | 1.2 | 30% |
| 37 | North Duffield North Yorkshire | C | 2.6 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 38 | Quainton Buckinghamshire | C | 3.8 | 69% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 39 | Haughley Suffolk | C | 3 | 71% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 40 | Kislingbury Northamptonshire | C | 8.4 | 26% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 41 | Moretonhampstead Devon | C | 0.6 | 81% | 1.2 | 100% |
| 42 | Ninfield East Sussex | C− | 1.8 | 50% | 1.4 | 50% |
| 43 | Langthorpe North Yorkshire | C− | 0.3 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 44 | Wingham Kent | C− | 2.2 | 53% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 45 | Llandysul Dyfed | C− | 5.2 | 47% | 1 | 0% |
| 46 | Northborough Cambridgeshire | C− | 1.7 | 68% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 47 | Wooden Dyfed | D | 0.1 | 0% | 0.4 | 18% |
| 48 | Bampton Devon | D | 1.5 | 22% | 1.6 | 5% |
| 49 | Heddon-on-the-Wall Northumberland | D | 0.6 | 70% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 50 | Colsterworth Lincolnshire | D | 1.3 | 67% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 51 | Staindrop County Durham | D | 1.4 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 52 | Hockwold cum Wilton Norfolk | D | 1.6 | 75% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 53 | Garsington Oxfordshire | D | 0.4 | 65% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 54 | Appleby Magna Leicestershire | D | 1.7 | 46% | 2 | 0% |
| 55 | Byfield Northamptonshire | D | 1.9 | 48% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 56 | Hauxton Cambridgeshire | D− | 1.3 | 55% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 57 | Brandesburton East Riding of Yorkshire | D− | 2.2 | 0% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 58 | Deeping St Nicholas Lincolnshire | D− | 0.7 | 80% | 0 | 0% |
| 59 | Hunger Hill Greater Manchester | D− | 0 | 0% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 60 | Witheridge Devon | D− | 0.5 | 36% | 1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Hurley’s built-up area.
How close Hurley’s homes are to a park
Each square is 1 in 100 residents: green lives within 400 m of a public park, garden or playing field (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace).
Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Hurley
Protected landscapes within 30 km, by direction and distance from the edge of the built-up area; circle size shows each one’s area. National Landscapes were called Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty until 2023.
Chilterns
36% of the land within 5 km of Hurley is National Park or National Landscape, more than 86% of UK towns.
Hurley is on the Thames Path
37 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Hurley and the kilometre around it, 2.6 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
The Thames Path, a national route, passes Hurley. 4 regional routes pass through, including the The Wokingham Way, Shakespeare's Way, The Chiltern Way and The Chiltern Way Berkshire Loop.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
The best walking months in Hurley: May to September
The village’s 1991–2020 averages (Met Office HadUK-Grid) and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have 12½+ hours of daylight, highs of 15 °C or more and little rain for the town.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 8.3 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 16.6 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.8 | 7.8 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 18 | 20 | 23 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 66 | 48 | 43 | 48 | 50 | 50 | 48 | 60 | 54 | 73 | 77 | 68 |
March is the driest month (43 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 77 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 55 nights a year. The climate in Hurley →
Viewpoints, hills and nature near Hurley
Mapped within 2 km of the village in OpenStreetMap, against the typical UK village its size per resident. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
The nearest beaches
Hurley is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the village.
Check the water before you swim. The Environment Agency tests designated bathing waters from May to September and publishes a rating for each beach.
Every named place, with directions
Nature reserves 2
Picnic sites 1
Playgrounds 1
Plus 1 playground without a name on the map.
Slipways 2
Plus 1 slipway without a name on the map.
The outdoors in nearby towns
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hurley | A | 3.1 | 100% | 36% |
| Marlow 2.6 mi | B+ | 1.9 | 73% | 39% |
| Marlow Bottom 3.3 mi | C | 0.5 | 40% | 50% |
| Cookham 3.6 mi | A+ | 8.3 | 96% | 19% |
| Maidenhead 3.8 mi | B+ | 1.8 | 83% | 3% |
| Wargrave 3.9 mi | A− | 4.0 | 100% | 11% |
| Lower Shiplake 4.1 mi | C+ | 3.0 | 0% | 28% |
Cookham, 3.6 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: 96% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. Cookham has at least twice Hurley’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Hurley
Is Hurley near a National Park?
It covers 838 km² and was designated in 1990.
What are the best walks near Hurley?
7 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the Thames Path, European walking route E2 west, UK, South East England and The Wokingham Way.
What is the nearest beach to Hurley?
Amity Beach, 16 mi from the edge of the village, then Hog Hole (22 mi). Hurley itself is inland.
How many people in Hurley live near a park?
100% of residents live within 400 m, about a 5-minute walk, of a public park, garden or playing field (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace). The typical UK town is 83%.
When is the best time of year for walking in Hurley?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Hurley good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.6 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 49% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 72% (3.1 ha per 1,000 residents).
How is the Outdoors Grade worked out?
From five measures, each placed among UK towns of 1,000 or more: public green space per resident, the share living near a park, National Park or National Landscape within 5 km, footpaths per square kilometre, and the sea within 5 km. It is a character grade and isn’t part of Hurley’s overall grade.
Where Hurley’s outdoors figures come from
- Parks and green space: Ordnance Survey OS Open Greenspace (parks and gardens, playing fields, play spaces, and their access points). Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- National Parks and National Landscapes: Natural England and Natural Resources Wales boundaries, areas and designation dates, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Footpaths, walking routes, beaches and things to do: © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License (ODbL), via Geofabrik, 16 October 2026.
- Historic parks, listed buildings and monuments: Historic England, National Heritage List for England, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Rain and temperature: Met Office HadUK-Grid 1991–2020 averages for the town; daylight calculated from its latitude.
- The sea: ONS Countries (December 2024) boundaries clipped to mean high water. Residents near a park: ONS Census 2021 output areas.
- Grade: TownRatings’ Outdoors Grade, ranked against UK towns only.
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.