Photo: John Sutton · CC BY-SA 2.082% of Sutton’s residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park
13 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 1.1 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Sutton add up to 1.9 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Sutton grades D for the outdoors: #36 of 50 in Cambridgeshire. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Sutton grades D for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Sutton, 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.
Sutton is 50th of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 3,700 to 4,000 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Sutton falls furthest behind on path per km², where 51 of the 59 others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Darley Dale Derbyshire | A+ | 3.8 | 100% | 3.4 | 51% |
| 2 | Batheaston Somerset | A | 3 | 84% | 4.6 | 71% |
| 3 | Cranbrook Kent | A | 5.8 | 82% | 2.9 | 65% |
| 4 | Chickerell Dorset | A | 1.5 | 88% | 3 | 27% |
| 5 | Walter's Ash and Naphill Buckinghamshire | A | 3.7 | 50% | 5.3 | 79% |
| 6 | Disley Cheshire | A− | 1.2 | 100% | 4.6 | 22% |
| 7 | Bowerhill Wiltshire | A− | 7.4 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 8 | Mulbarton Norfolk | A− | 7 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 9 | Welwyn Hertfordshire | A− | 2.6 | 100% | 4 | 0% |
| 10 | Esh Winning County Durham | A− | 3.2 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 11 | Old Basing Hampshire | A− | 13.6 | 92% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 12 | Colden Common Hampshire | B+ | 2.7 | 82% | 2.8 | 35% |
| 13 | Barnt Green Worcestershire | B+ | 37.8 | 81% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 14 | Carbis Bay Cornwall | B+ | 0.5 | 88% | 2.8 | 20% |
| 15 | Long Melford Suffolk | B+ | 6.9 | 87% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 16 | Papworth Everard Cambridgeshire | B+ | 4.3 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 17 | Chirk Clwyd | B+ | 1.8 | 100% | 2.3 | 15% |
| 18 | Locking Somerset | B+ | 2.7 | 84% | 2.4 | 23% |
| 19 | Greasbrough South Yorkshire | B | 2.9 | 80% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 20 | Queenborough Kent | B | 1.6 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 21 | Stoke Poges Buckinghamshire | B | 7.7 | 76% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 22 | Romanby North Yorkshire | B | 3.1 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 23 | Mytholmroyd West Yorkshire | B | 1.8 | 88% | 5.8 | 0% |
| 24 | Framlingham Suffolk | B | 3.7 | 73% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 25 | Pirbright Surrey | B | 2 | 84% | 5.7 | 0% |
| 26 | Calverley West Yorkshire | B | 1.5 | 92% | 6 | 0% |
| 27 | Rhuddlan Clwyd | B− | 1.8 | 85% | 0.9 | 8% |
| 28 | Glanaman Dyfed | B− | 3.3 | 83% | 0.8 | 29% |
| 29 | Cholsey Oxfordshire | B− | 2.3 | 55% | 2.5 | 81% |
| 30 | Alford Lincolnshire | B− | 2.1 | 85% | 1.5 | 26% |
| 31 | Lower Stondon Bedfordshire | B− | 2.7 | 73% | 2.2 | 5% |
| 32 | New Romney Kent | C+ | 2.5 | 79% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 33 | Chipping Ongar Essex | C+ | 2.5 | 83% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 34 | Bar Hill Cambridgeshire | C+ | 1.4 | 93% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 35 | Pewsey Wiltshire | C+ | 1 | 64% | 3 | 91% |
| 36 | Troedyrhiw and Pentrebach Mid Glamorgan | C+ | 2.5 | 84% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 37 | Heacham Norfolk | C+ | 1.5 | 53% | 1.1 | 29% |
| 38 | Forest Row East Sussex | C+ | 0.3 | 51% | 3.4 | 94% |
| 39 | Silver End Essex | C | 2 | 88% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 40 | Cubbington Warwickshire | C | 1.5 | 100% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 41 | Tenbury Wells Worcestershire | C | 2.3 | 51% | 2.1 | 3% |
| 42 | Oaklands Hertfordshire | C | 2 | 7% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 43 | Bromyard Herefordshire | C | 0.9 | 100% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 44 | Whiston South Yorkshire | C− | 1 | 75% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 45 | Desford Leicestershire | C− | 1.6 | 90% | 2 | 0% |
| 46 | Holton le Clay Lincolnshire | C− | 2 | 59% | 1.4 | 8% |
| 47 | Lydd Kent | C− | 1.7 | 66% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 48 | Kingston Bagpuize Oxfordshire | C− | 0.8 | 100% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 49 | Swanland East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 1.1 | 75% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 50 | Sutton Cambridgeshire | D | 1.9 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 51 | Glyn-neath West Glamorgan | D | 1.3 | 57% | 1.1 | 22% |
| 52 | Pen-pedair-heol Gwent | D | 0.9 | 80% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 53 | Crowle Lincolnshire | D | 1.3 | 91% | 1 | 0% |
| 54 | Puckeridge and Standon Hertfordshire | D | 0.9 | 59% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 55 | Sutton Bridge Lincolnshire | D | 1.3 | 79% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 56 | North Ferriby East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 0.6 | 33% | 1 | 0% |
| 57 | Willingham Cambridgeshire | D | 1.4 | 73% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 58 | Long Buckby Northamptonshire | D− | 0.6 | 52% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 59 | Penyffordd Clwyd | D− | 0.7 | 36% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 60 | Indian Queens, Fraddon and St Columb Road Cornwall | D− | 0.7 | 27% | 1.6 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Sutton’s built-up area.
How close Sutton’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).
About 700 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 4 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 970 residents.
Footpaths in and around Sutton
13 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Sutton and the kilometre around it, 1.1 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0).
No named walking route is mapped within 2 km of Sutton; its footpaths are on the map above.
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 Sutton: May to September
The town’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) | 8.2 | 9.8 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.7 | 16.8 | 16.3 | 14.7 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.6 | 7.7 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 23 | 20 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 49 | 35 | 35 | 38 | 44 | 54 | 58 | 58 | 50 | 61 | 56 | 53 |
March is the driest month (35 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 61 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 49 nights a year. The climate in Sutton →
4 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap, against the typical UK town its size per resident. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
The nearest beaches
Sutton is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
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
The outdoors in nearby towns
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
Witchford, 3.5 miles away, grades C+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.
Questions about the outdoors in Sutton
Is Sutton near a National Park?
No National Park or National Landscape is within 30 km (about 19 miles) of Sutton.
What is the nearest beach to Sutton?
The Beach, 21 mi from the edge of the town. Sutton itself is inland.
How many people in Sutton live near a park?
82% 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 Sutton?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Sutton good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 1.1 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 9% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 42% (1.9 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 Sutton’s overall grade.
Where Sutton’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.