Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Anthony Parkes · CC BY-SA 2.052 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 4.7 for every square kilometre. The Bryniau Clwyd A Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape begins 4.8 mi from the town’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Aston add up to 4.4 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Aston grades B− for the outdoors: #24 of 39 in Clwyd. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Aston’s strongest suit is dense footpaths, followed by plenty of park space. Where it falls short is how far some homes are from a park.
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Aston, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
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.
The 60 UK towns and cities of 2,700 to 3,000 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against towns its size, Aston stands out most for park space per resident: only 6 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on homes near a park, where 48 of the others do better.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Halling Kent | A+ | 3.8 | 100% | 4.6 | 54% |
| 2 | Rudloe Wiltshire | A+ | 7.3 | 91% | 4 | 45% |
| 3 | Bruton Somerset | A | 9.3 | 100% | 2.5 | 1% |
| 4 | Hartshill Warwickshire | A | 19 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 5 | Mortimer Berkshire | A | 2.4 | 100% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 6 | Stoke Mandeville Buckinghamshire | A− | 5.5 | 37% | 6.8 | 29% |
| 7 | Kingsclere Hampshire | A− | 2.2 | 100% | 2.5 | 50% |
| 8 | Wargrave Berkshire | A− | 4 | 100% | 2 | 11% |
| 9 | Threemilestone Cornwall | A− | 3.1 | 100% | 2.6 | 1% |
| 10 | Knighton Powys | A− | 2.7 | 81% | 3.4 | 34% |
| 11 | East Saltdean East Sussex | A− | 1.6 | 0% | 4.9 | 44% |
| 12 | Congresbury Somerset | A− | 8.5 | 67% | 3.5 | 10% |
| 13 | Holywell Green and Stainland West Yorkshire | A− | 4 | 89% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 14 | Charfield Gloucestershire | B+ | 1.3 | 100% | 3 | 22% |
| 15 | South Hetton County Durham | B+ | 3.4 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 16 | Hertford Heath Hertfordshire | B+ | 1.6 | 100% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 17 | Mundesley Norfolk | B | 1.8 | 79% | 1.5 | 24% |
| 18 | Charlbury Oxfordshire | B | 3.1 | 66% | 2.4 | 65% |
| 19 | Barlborough Derbyshire | B | 4.4 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 20 | Rockwell Green Somerset | B | 1 | 90% | 3.2 | 24% |
| 21 | Scholes (near Cleckheaton) West Yorkshire | B | 4 | 89% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 22 | Tollesbury Essex | B− | 2 | 85% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 23 | Chalgrove Oxfordshire | B− | 4.1 | 85% | 1.2 | 4% |
| 24 | Aston Clwyd | B− | 4.4 | 37% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 25 | Waltham Chase Hampshire | B− | 2 | 75% | 2.2 | 39% |
| 26 | Pimperne Dorset | C+ | 1.9 | 72% | 1.9 | 89% |
| 27 | Great Totham Essex | C+ | 2.8 | 100% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 28 | Over Cambridgeshire | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 29 | Bluntisham and Colne Cambridgeshire | C+ | 2.3 | 88% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 30 | Rolleston on Dove Staffordshire | C+ | 3.8 | 84% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 31 | Alderholt Dorset | C | 1.9 | 43% | 2.3 | 31% |
| 32 | Collingham Nottinghamshire | C | 2.4 | 78% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 33 | Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll Gwynedd | C | 0.8 | 71% | 1.6 | 8% |
| 34 | Barrow upon Humber Lincolnshire | C | 1.5 | 88% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 35 | Trimdon County Durham | C | 1 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 36 | East Goscote Leicestershire | C | 2.9 | 75% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 37 | Corbridge Northumberland | C | 2.2 | 79% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 38 | Maerdy Mid Glamorgan | C− | 1.1 | 100% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 39 | Alrewas Staffordshire | C− | 1.5 | 66% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 40 | Tuxford Nottinghamshire | C− | 1.4 | 100% | 1 | 0% |
| 41 | Mere Wiltshire | C− | 1.6 | 34% | 1.5 | 54% |
| 42 | Clifton Bedfordshire | C− | 1.7 | 64% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 43 | Weedon Bec Northamptonshire | C− | 1.1 | 87% | 2 | 0% |
| 44 | Thorngumbald East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 1.3 | 69% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 45 | Catterall Lancashire | D | 1 | 47% | 1.9 | 9% |
| 46 | Croston Lancashire | D | 0.6 | 78% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 47 | Gamlingay Cambridgeshire | D | 2.1 | 32% | 2 | 0% |
| 48 | Sherburn County Durham | D | 0.2 | 0% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 49 | Berinsfield Oxfordshire | D | 0.1 | 0% | 2.1 | 11% |
| 50 | Terrington St Clement Norfolk | D | 1.5 | 53% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 51 | Seghill Northumberland | D | 0.2 | 41% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 52 | Repton Derbyshire | D | 0.8 | 36% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 53 | Pevensey Bay East Sussex | D | 0.5 | 0% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 54 | East Ayton and West Ayton North Yorkshire | D | 0.1 | 0% | 1.2 | 33% |
| 55 | West Winch Norfolk | D | 1.5 | 73% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 56 | Hunmanby North Yorkshire | D | 0.3 | 33% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 57 | Pickmere Cheshire | D− | 0.4 | 71% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 58 | Langstone Gwent | D− | 0.1 | 46% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 59 | Feltwell Norfolk | D− | 1.1 | 63% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 60 | Greetham Rutland | D− | 0.9 | 30% | 0.8 | 0% |
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Aston’s built-up area.
The biggest is Parc Gwepra, 61 ha (150 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
The two biggest, Parc Gwepra and Taliesin Nature Reserve, are 98% of the named green space and carry 12 km of path between them.
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 1,800 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 41 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 69 residents.
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.
Protected landscape begins just outside the 5 km ring the Outdoors Grade measures, so Aston scores 0% on it even though the Bryniau Clwyd A Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape is 4.8 mi away.
52 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Aston and the kilometre around it, 4.7 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
The Wales Coast Path, a national route, passes Aston.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
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) | 8.1 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.8 | 16.9 | 16.5 | 14.8 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.5 | 7.6 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 21 | 21 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 58 | 57 | 56 | 53 | 56 | 62 | 60 | 62 | 66 | 80 | 81 | 81 |
April is the driest month (53 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 21 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 81 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 34 nights a year. The climate in Aston →
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.
Aston is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
Check the water before you swim. Natural Resources Wales tests designated bathing waters from May to September and publishes a rating for each beach.
Up high. Hawarden Castle, at 90 m, is the highest named top within 2 km of Aston.
Plus 1 viewpoint without a name on the map.
Plus 1 waterfall without a name on the map.
Plus 37 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Plus 1 slipway without a name on the map.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aston | B− | 4.4 | 37% | 0% |
| Hawarden 0.7 mi | B− | 3.7 | 81% | 0% |
| Shotton 0.9 mi | A | 4.5 | 100% | 0% |
| Connah's Quay 1.6 mi | A | 5.8 | 97% | 0% |
| Garden City 1.9 mi | D− | 1.5 | 58% | 0% |
| Northop Hall 2.1 mi | B | 2.6 | 100% | 0% |
| Buckley 2.4 mi | C+ | 2.6 | 82% | 0% |
Shotton, 0.9 miles away, grades A, 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.
Parc Gwepra, 61 ha (150 acres), with 10.2 km of path, just outside the built-up area. Taliesin Nature Reserve (7.6 ha) is second. 4 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
The nearest protected landscape is the Bryniau Clwyd A Dyffryn Dyfrdwy/clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape, 4.8 mi west of the town’s edge. It covers 389 km² and was designated in 2011.
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the town, including the Wales Coast Path (North Wales) main route. Parc Gwepra alone has 10.2 km of path.
Tranmere Beach, 12 mi from the edge of the town, then East Hoyle Bank (14 mi). Aston itself is inland.
37% 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%.
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
For paths, yes: 4.7 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 91% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 84% (4.4 ha per 1,000 residents).
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 Aston’s overall grade.
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.