Photo: george hurrell · CC BY-SA 2.0Almost everyone in Wheatley Hill lives within a 5-minute walk of a park
Parks and playing fields in Wheatley Hill add up to 2.6 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Footpaths add up to 27 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 3.0 for every square kilometre. Wheatley Hill grades B+ for the outdoors: #12 of 52 in County Durham. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Wheatley Hill grades B+ for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Wheatley Hill, 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.
Wheatley Hill is 16th of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 3,000 to 3,300 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against towns its size, Wheatley Hill stands out most for park space per resident: only 10 of the other 59 have more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whyteleafe Surrey | A+ | 16.3 | 100% | 4.9 | 15% |
| 2 | Theale Berkshire | A+ | 5 | 100% | 3.8 | 39% |
| 3 | Bignall End Staffordshire | A | 9.1 | 100% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 4 | Moira Leicestershire | A | 15.5 | 86% | 5.1 | 0% |
| 5 | Tywyn Gwynedd | A− | 2.4 | 79% | 1.9 | 51% |
| 6 | Gamesley Derbyshire | A− | 0.8 | 100% | 5 | 32% |
| 7 | Netherton (Kirklees) West Yorkshire | A− | 2 | 88% | 5.5 | 6% |
| 8 | Oughtibridge South Yorkshire | A− | 2.2 | 76% | 6 | 19% |
| 9 | Bream Gloucestershire | A− | 2.2 | 82% | 4.7 | 10% |
| 10 | Wootton Isle of Wight | B+ | 3.7 | 67% | 1.7 | 20% |
| 11 | North Petherton Somerset | B+ | 3.8 | 91% | 2.3 | 5% |
| 12 | Amlwch Gwynedd | B+ | 1.6 | 87% | 2.1 | 14% |
| 13 | Porthleven Cornwall | B+ | 1.6 | 78% | 2.5 | 19% |
| 14 | Drayton Oxfordshire | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 3 | 3% |
| 15 | Markyate Hertfordshire | B+ | 1.4 | 100% | 2.2 | 53% |
| 16 | Wheatley Hill County Durham | B+ | 2.6 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 17 | Newton and Blackwell Derbyshire | B | 2.6 | 91% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 18 | Honeybourne Worcestershire | B | 2.9 | 80% | 2.6 | 14% |
| 19 | Upper Beeding West Sussex | B | 0.6 | 83% | 3.9 | 62% |
| 20 | Fleur-de-lis and Pengam Gwent | B | 6 | 54% | 4.9 | 0% |
| 21 | Ringmer East Sussex | B− | 1.9 | 91% | 1.8 | 37% |
| 22 | Newbold Verdon Leicestershire | B− | 2.3 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 23 | Askam in Furness Cumbria | B− | 1.7 | 90% | 2 | 0% |
| 24 | Dunton Green Kent | B− | 1 | 82% | 2.7 | 69% |
| 25 | Harwell Oxfordshire | B− | 1.4 | 85% | 2.3 | 42% |
| 26 | Healing Lincolnshire | B− | 2 | 78% | 1.3 | 1% |
| 27 | Crumbles East Sussex | B− | 0.3 | 44% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 28 | Lambourn Berkshire | C+ | 1.2 | 61% | 3 | 100% |
| 29 | Etwall Derbyshire | C+ | 2.3 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 30 | Milborne Port Somerset | C+ | 1.6 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 31 | Dymchurch Kent | C+ | 1.6 | 58% | 1 | 13% |
| 32 | Thaxted Essex | C | 0.8 | 91% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 33 | Swillington West Yorkshire | C | 2.2 | 68% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 34 | West Bergholt Essex | C | 1.5 | 82% | 1.8 | 9% |
| 35 | Swanmore Hampshire | C | 1.4 | 69% | 1.9 | 54% |
| 36 | Sutton Courtenay Oxfordshire | C | 1.2 | 23% | 4 | 6% |
| 37 | West Chiltington West Sussex | C | 1.5 | 18% | 2.7 | 38% |
| 38 | Teynham Kent | C | 0.8 | 55% | 1.8 | 13% |
| 39 | Ogmore Vale Mid Glamorgan | C | 4.3 | 79% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 40 | Cullingworth West Yorkshire | C− | 1.1 | 72% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 41 | Hadlow Kent | C− | 1.7 | 61% | 2 | 11% |
| 42 | Charvil Berkshire | C− | 0.7 | 68% | 2.7 | 6% |
| 43 | Claydon Suffolk | C− | 2.8 | 72% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 44 | Appleby-in-Westmorland Cumbria | C− | 1.2 | 63% | 2.1 | 24% |
| 45 | Yarnton Oxfordshire | C− | 0.4 | 69% | 3 | 0% |
| 46 | Farnsfield Nottinghamshire | C− | 2 | 63% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 47 | Lostwithiel Cornwall | C− | 1.6 | 67% | 1.5 | 11% |
| 48 | West Auckland County Durham | C− | 1.1 | 91% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 49 | Purton Wiltshire | C− | 0.8 | 60% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 50 | South Petherton Somerset | C− | 1.1 | 61% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 51 | Rendlesham Suffolk | C− | 0.8 | 52% | 1.6 | 59% |
| 52 | Navenby Lincolnshire | D | 1.2 | 81% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 53 | Tarporley Cheshire | D | 1 | 69% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 54 | Skellingthorpe Lincolnshire | D | 1.2 | 69% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 55 | Eccleshall Staffordshire | D | 1.1 | 74% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 56 | Queniborough Leicestershire | D | 1.4 | 48% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 57 | Kirton in Lindsey Lincolnshire | D− | 1.7 | 57% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 58 | Boroughbridge North Yorkshire | D− | 0.4 | 60% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 59 | Upper Tean Staffordshire | D− | 0.6 | 60% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 60 | Donington Lincolnshire | D− | 0.8 | 54% | 0.8 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Wheatley Hill’s built-up area.
How close Wheatley Hill’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; 5 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 630 residents.
The North Pennines National Landscape is 17 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.
Footpaths in and around Wheatley Hill
27 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Wheatley Hill and the kilometre around it, 3.0 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0).
No named walking route is mapped within 2 km of Wheatley Hill; 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 Wheatley Hill: June, July and 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) | 7.8 | 9.6 | 11.7 | 14.0 | 16.1 | 17.3 | 16.8 | 14.9 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.3 | 7.2 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 19 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 54 | 50 | 49 | 57 | 51 | 69 | 68 | 76 | 62 | 78 | 80 | 68 |
March is the driest month (49 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 80 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 55 nights a year. The climate in Wheatley Hill →
5 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
Wheatley Hill 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
Nature reserves 2
Playgrounds 5
Plus 5 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Campsites 1
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheatley Hill | B+ | 2.6 | 100% | 0% |
| Thornley 1.2 mi | B+ | 3.2 | 100% | 0% |
| Trimdon Colliery 1.6 mi | B+ | 4.7 | 100% | 0% |
| Shotton Colliery 1.7 mi | D− | 0.9 | 40% | 0% |
| Wingate 1.8 mi | D− | 1.0 | 64% | 0% |
| Trimdon Grange 2.0 mi | C+ | 2.1 | 100% | 0% |
| Kelloe 2.7 mi | B | 5.6 | 42% | 0% |
Thornley, 1.2 miles away, grades B+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Kelloe has at least twice Wheatley Hill’s green space per resident. None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.
Questions about the outdoors in Wheatley Hill
Is Wheatley Hill near a National Park?
The nearest protected landscape is the North Pennines National Landscape, 17 mi west of the town’s edge. It covers 1,985 km² and was designated in 1988.
What is the nearest beach to Wheatley Hill?
Shippersea Bay, 5.2 mi from the edge of the town, then Hawthorn Hive (5.5 mi). Wheatley Hill itself is inland.
How many people in Wheatley Hill 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 Wheatley Hill?
June, July and September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Wheatley Hill good for walking?
About average for paths: 3.0 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 58% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 63% (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 Wheatley Hill’s overall grade.
Where Wheatley Hill’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.