Photo: Dave Bevis · CC BY-SA 2.0Almost everyone in Cromford lives within a 5-minute walk of a park
Footpaths add up to 62 km in the village and the kilometre around it, 6.6 for every square kilometre. The Peak District National Park begins 0.5 mi from the village’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Cromford add up to 1.8 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Cromford grades A for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Cromford?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Cromford’s strongest suit is parks close to every home, followed by dense footpaths. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Cromford grades A for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Cromford, 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.
Cromford is 7th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,300 to 1,500 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Cromford stands out most for path per km²: none of the other 59 has more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dwygyfylchi Clwyd | A+ | 3.2 | 83% | 4.3 | 28% |
| 2 | Tatsfield Surrey | A+ | 7.5 | 100% | 3.1 | 34% |
| 3 | Troon Cornwall | A+ | 6.2 | 100% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 4 | Kingswood Gloucestershire | A | 2.1 | 100% | 3.7 | 45% |
| 5 | Tir-y-berth and Glan-y-nant Gwent | A | 22.1 | 100% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 6 | Chilton Oxfordshire | A | 5.4 | 88% | 2.8 | 70% |
| 7 | Cromford Derbyshire | A | 1.8 | 100% | 6.6 | 12% |
| 8 | Cowfold West Sussex | A | 2.6 | 100% | 3.6 | 15% |
| 9 | Gomshall Surrey | A | 1.9 | 89% | 4.8 | 87% |
| 10 | West Horsley Surrey | A | 3 | 74% | 5.2 | 40% |
| 11 | Startforth County Durham | A | 6 | 78% | 4.3 | 4% |
| 12 | Sherston Wiltshire | A | 3.7 | 100% | 1.4 | 75% |
| 13 | Sherfield on Loddon Hampshire | A− | 8.3 | 100% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 14 | Weston Rhyn Shropshire | A− | 3.6 | 100% | 2.2 | 10% |
| 15 | Distington Cumbria | A− | 4.2 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 16 | Wharncliffe Side South Yorkshire | A− | 3.3 | 47% | 6.4 | 22% |
| 17 | Shotley Gate Suffolk | A− | 1 | 100% | 1.5 | 34% |
| 18 | Carway Dyfed | B+ | 17 | 100% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 19 | Appleton Thorn Cheshire | B+ | 5.6 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 20 | Handcross West Sussex | B | 9.6 | 58% | 1.9 | 87% |
| 21 | Barrow Lancashire | B | 0.5 | 100% | 2.8 | 27% |
| 22 | Trevor Clwyd | B | 2 | 60% | 3.5 | 55% |
| 23 | Woolmer Green Hertfordshire | B | 1.3 | 100% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 24 | Bentley Hampshire | B | 1.3 | 100% | 2.1 | 22% |
| 25 | Tye Green Essex | B | 2 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 26 | Cefn Cribwr Mid Glamorgan | B | 6.5 | 100% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 27 | Sampford Peverell Devon | B− | 3 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 28 | Warkworth Northumberland | B− | 1.8 | 76% | 1.3 | 9% |
| 29 | Kingswood Kent | B− | 3.8 | 23% | 2.7 | 11% |
| 30 | Clwt-y-bont Gwynedd | B− | 0.8 | 100% | 2.1 | 19% |
| 31 | Steeple Bumpstead Essex | B− | 1.9 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 32 | Trub Greater Manchester | C+ | 1.9 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 33 | Pilning Gloucestershire | C+ | 2 | 54% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 34 | Launton Oxfordshire | C+ | 0.7 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 35 | Thorner West Yorkshire | C+ | 2.1 | 74% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 36 | Benenden Kent | C | 2 | 57% | 1.7 | 83% |
| 37 | Barlaston Staffordshire | C | 2.7 | 80% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 38 | Great Waldingfield Suffolk | C | 2 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 39 | Great Bardfield Essex | C | 2 | 81% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 40 | Brailsford Derbyshire | C | 0.9 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 41 | Slip End Bedfordshire | C | 1.9 | 22% | 2.3 | 28% |
| 42 | Tickton East Riding of Yorkshire | C | 2 | 100% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 43 | Winterley Cheshire | C | 0.9 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 44 | Chelford Cheshire | C | 1.8 | 82% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 45 | Easebourne West Sussex | C | 0.4 | 0% | 2.9 | 100% |
| 46 | Blunham Bedfordshire | C | 2.2 | 77% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 47 | Offord D'Arcy and Offord Cluny Cambridgeshire | C− | 2.7 | 78% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 48 | Penperlleni Gwent | C− | 0.6 | 80% | 1.7 | 17% |
| 49 | Newton St Loe Somerset | C− | 0 | 0% | 3.5 | 17% |
| 50 | Newton Flotman Norfolk | C− | 2.5 | 78% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 51 | Penrhyn-coch Dyfed | D | 0.7 | 100% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 52 | Hawley Kent | D | 0.7 | 24% | 2.8 | 3% |
| 53 | Perham Down Wiltshire | D | 0.8 | 42% | 2.2 | 17% |
| 54 | Billingborough Lincolnshire | D | 2.4 | 45% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 55 | Skelton (York) North Yorkshire | D | 1.4 | 77% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 56 | Meon Vale Warwickshire | D | 0.4 | 50% | 1.4 | 19% |
| 57 | Stillington County Durham | D | 1.4 | 77% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 58 | Friday Bridge Cambridgeshire | D− | 1 | 79% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 59 | Woodmansey East Riding of Yorkshire | D− | 0.7 | 0% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 60 | Langham Rutland | D− | 0.3 | 23% | 1.3 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Cromford’s built-up area.
How close Cromford’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; 16 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 87 residents.
The Peak District National Park is 0.5 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.
Peak District
12% of the land within 5 km of Cromford is National Park or National Landscape, more than 72% of UK towns. Peak District National Park covers 1,438 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
6 waymarked walks pass through or near Cromford
62 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Cromford and the kilometre around it, 6.6 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
5 regional routes pass through, including the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, Midshires Way, High Peak Trail and Peak District Boundary Walk Stage 13.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
A registered historic park in Cromford
Historic England’s register of parks and gardens, and the listed buildings and scheduled monuments that stand inside Cromford’s named parks.
A listed building or monument counts when it sits inside the park’s OS Open Greenspace outline (to about 15 m), so a few at the boundary are included. Historic England, National Heritage List for England.
The best walking months in Cromford: 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) | 8.1 | 9.8 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.8 | 16.9 | 16.5 | 14.7 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.5 | 7.6 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 86 | 72 | 65 | 61 | 64 | 71 | 70 | 70 | 68 | 91 | 94 | 97 |
April is the driest month (61 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 21 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 97 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 50 nights a year. The climate in Cromford →
5 viewpoints, 16 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
Cromford 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.
Up high. Bolehill, at 323 m, is the highest named top within 2 km of Cromford.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 5
Plus 5 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Hills and peaks 3
Waterfalls 3
Plus 3 waterfalls without a name on the map.
Nature reserves 3
Plus 2 nature reserves without a name on the map.
Picnic sites 7
Plus 7 picnic sites 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cromford | A | 1.8 | 100% | 12% |
| Wirksworth 1.7 mi | A | 2.0 | 100% | 8% |
| Matlock 2.6 mi | A− | 2.9 | 76% | 20% |
| Tansley 2.8 mi | C+ | 1.6 | 73% | 4% |
| Crich 3.8 mi | C− | 0.6 | 69% | 0% |
| Darley Dale 4.4 mi | A+ | 3.8 | 100% | 51% |
| Ambergate 5.1 mi | B+ | 2.4 | 100% | 0% |
Darley Dale, 4.4 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Darley Dale has at least twice Cromford’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Cromford
Is Cromford near a National Park?
Yes. Peak District National Park begins 0.5 mi north-west of the village’s edge. It covers 1,438 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
What are the best walks near Cromford?
6 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, Midshires Way and High Peak Trail.
What is the nearest beach to Cromford?
The Beach, 21 mi from the edge of the village. Cromford itself is inland.
How many people in Cromford 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 Cromford?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Which parks in Cromford are historic?
Willersley Castle (Grade II) is on Historic England’s register of parks and gardens.
Is Cromford good for walking?
For paths, yes: 6.6 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 99% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 39% (1.8 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 Cromford’s overall grade.
Where Cromford’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.