Photo: Ian S · CC BY-SA 2.0Almost everyone in Bishop Middleham lives within a 5-minute walk of a park
15 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 2.2 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Bishop Middleham add up to 2.6 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Bishop Middleham grades B− for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Bishop Middleham grades B− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Bishop Middleham, 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.
Bishop Middleham is 21st of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,100 to 1,200 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Bishop Middleham stands out most for park space per resident: only 22 of the other 59 have more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corton Suffolk | A+ | 4.4 | 100% | 3 | 5% |
| 2 | Bathford Somerset | A+ | 4.8 | 100% | 3.7 | 64% |
| 3 | Upton St Leonards Gloucestershire | A+ | 5.2 | 80% | 7.5 | 43% |
| 4 | Fairlands Surrey | A+ | 2.8 | 100% | 5 | 11% |
| 5 | Ditchling East Sussex | A | 7.4 | 77% | 4 | 57% |
| 6 | Horsted Keynes West Sussex | A− | 2.2 | 100% | 2.3 | 83% |
| 7 | Wenvoe South Glamorgan | A− | 5.9 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 8 | Chatburn Lancashire | A− | 1.7 | 100% | 2.6 | 59% |
| 9 | Boosbeck North Yorkshire | A− | 2.9 | 100% | 1.9 | 22% |
| 10 | Camber East Sussex | A− | 0.9 | 100% | 2.4 | 5% |
| 11 | Grange Moor West Yorkshire | A− | 4.3 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 12 | Gotherington Gloucestershire | B+ | 2.7 | 72% | 3.7 | 33% |
| 13 | St Erth Cornwall | B+ | 0.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 4% |
| 14 | Walton Somerset | B+ | 3 | 100% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 15 | Oakley Buckinghamshire | B | 2.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 16 | High Pittington County Durham | B | 1.6 | 100% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 17 | Cropston Leicestershire | B | 3.1 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 18 | Huntley Gloucestershire | B | 2.9 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 19 | Jacobs Well Surrey | B | 1.4 | 77% | 4.7 | 8% |
| 20 | Curdworth Warwickshire | B− | 2.9 | 100% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 21 | Bishop Middleham County Durham | B− | 2.6 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 22 | Plaxtol Kent | B− | 2.6 | 57% | 2.5 | 40% |
| 23 | Harpur Hill Derbyshire | B− | 3.1 | 31% | 2.3 | 60% |
| 24 | Kelly Bray Cornwall | B− | 1.2 | 100% | 1.8 | 22% |
| 25 | Thurlton Norfolk | B− | 1.5 | 100% | 0.7 | 39% |
| 26 | Beaumaris Gwynedd | B− | 2.7 | 30% | 0.8 | 18% |
| 27 | Romsley Worcestershire | B− | 1.4 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 28 | Latchingdon Essex | B− | 1.7 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 29 | Grovesend West Glamorgan | C+ | 3.5 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 30 | Gainford County Durham | C+ | 2.6 | 100% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 31 | Lacey Green and Loosley Row Buckinghamshire | C+ | 2.1 | 27% | 2.4 | 82% |
| 32 | Whimple Devon | C+ | 5.2 | 70% | 0.9 | 1% |
| 33 | Brinklow Warwickshire | C+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 34 | St Cleer Cornwall | C | 3 | 29% | 1.6 | 32% |
| 35 | Hunston West Sussex | C | 1.8 | 65% | 2.4 | 17% |
| 36 | Three Legged Cross Dorset | C | 1.5 | 77% | 2.6 | 1% |
| 37 | Bow Devon | C | 1.9 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 38 | Swindon Staffordshire | C | 2.5 | 67% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 39 | Mannings Heath West Sussex | C | 1 | 71% | 1.9 | 44% |
| 40 | Baldwin's Gate Staffordshire | C− | 1.3 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 41 | North Newbald East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 1.7 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 42 | Maiden Newton Dorset | C− | 1.1 | 27% | 2 | 100% |
| 43 | Wetheral Cumbria | C− | 3.8 | 51% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 44 | Crowle Worcestershire | C− | 2.4 | 34% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 45 | Eastrington East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 3 | 65% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 46 | Beachley Gloucestershire | C− | 0.3 | 0% | 1.2 | 14% |
| 47 | Fochriw Gwent | C− | 1 | 73% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 48 | Capel Hendre Dyfed | D | 0.8 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 49 | Benwick Cambridgeshire | D | 0.3 | 100% | 0.2 | 0% |
| 50 | Orwell Cambridgeshire | D | 1.2 | 78% | 2 | 0% |
| 51 | Ramsey Island Essex | D | 1.4 | 39% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 52 | Pelynt Cornwall | D | 0 | 0% | 0.6 | 13% |
| 53 | Chawley Oxfordshire | D | 0.3 | 0% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 54 | Great Doddington Northamptonshire | D | 1.3 | 69% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 55 | High Legh Cheshire | D− | 1.9 | 50% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 56 | Moulton Chapel Lincolnshire | D− | 1.5 | 60% | 0 | 0% |
| 57 | Kentford Suffolk | D− | 1.9 | 0% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 58 | Austrey Warwickshire | D− | 1.7 | 0% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 59 | East Keswick West Yorkshire | D− | 0.2 | 0% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 60 | Clipsham Rutland | D− | 0 | 0% | 1.7 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Bishop Middleham’s built-up area.
How close Bishop Middleham’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.
The North Pennines National Landscape is 15 mi away
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.
North York Moors National Park covers 1,441 km² and has been a National Park since 1952.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Bishop Middleham
15 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Bishop Middleham and the kilometre around it, 2.2 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
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 Bishop Middleham: May to July and 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) | 7.8 | 9.6 | 11.7 | 14.0 | 16.1 | 17.3 | 16.8 | 14.9 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.3 | 7.3 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 57 | 49 | 47 | 53 | 47 | 66 | 69 | 73 | 59 | 71 | 74 | 66 |
March is the driest month (47 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 74 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 53 nights a year. The climate in Bishop Middleham →
2 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
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
Bishop Middleham 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
Plus 1 picnic site without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 2
Plus 2 playgrounds 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.
Sedgefield, 2.2 miles away, grades B, the best next door: 81% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. Sedgefield has at least twice Bishop Middleham’s green space per resident. None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.
Questions about the outdoors in Bishop Middleham
Is Bishop Middleham near a National Park?
Yes. North York Moors National Park begins 18 mi south-east of the village’s edge. It covers 1,441 km² and has been a National Park since 1952. The nearest protected landscape of any kind is the North Pennines National Landscape, 15 mi away.
What are the best walks near Bishop Middleham?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the village, including the Hardwick Park & Bishop's Fen.
What is the nearest beach to Bishop Middleham?
Shippersea Bay, 11 mi from the edge of the village, then Hawthorn Hive (11 mi). Bishop Middleham itself is inland.
How many people in Bishop Middleham 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 Bishop Middleham?
May to July and September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Bishop Middleham good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 2.2 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 36% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 62% (2.6 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 Bishop Middleham’s overall grade.
Where Bishop Middleham’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.