Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Stephen Craven · CC BY-SA 2.0Dartmoor National Park reaches the edge of Okehampton. Parks and playing fields in Okehampton add up to 0.9 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. 37 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 2.2 for every square kilometre. Okehampton grades C+ for the outdoors: #35 of 47 in Devon. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Okehampton’s strongest suit is protected countryside on the doorstep, followed by its historic parks. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Okehampton, 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 8,700 to 9,500 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Okehampton falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 57 of the 59 others do better.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Swanage Dorset | A+ | 6.9 | 95% | 4.2 | 47% |
| 2 | Worsbrough South Yorkshire | A | 10.1 | 100% | 6 | 0% |
| 3 | Brynteg Clwyd | A | 8.5 | 100% | 2.8 | 7% |
| 4 | Ilfracombe Devon | A | 2 | 86% | 3 | 28% |
| 5 | Killamarsh Derbyshire | A | 10.6 | 97% | 5.5 | 0% |
| 6 | Bordon Hampshire | A | 8.6 | 54% | 6.7 | 49% |
| 7 | Linthwaite and Slaithwaite West Yorkshire | A | 2.2 | 97% | 4.8 | 12% |
| 8 | New Mills Derbyshire | A | 2.4 | 84% | 5.1 | 34% |
| 9 | Warlingham Surrey | A | 4.2 | 81% | 4.3 | 13% |
| 10 | Greasby Merseyside | A | 5.9 | 74% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 11 | Whiteley Hampshire | A− | 3 | 52% | 4.4 | 2% |
| 12 | Hetton-le-Hole Tyne and Wear | A− | 7.8 | 95% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 13 | Shelf and Northowram West Yorkshire | A− | 5.3 | 88% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 14 | Billingshurst West Sussex | A− | 2.9 | 95% | 3.1 | 3% |
| 15 | Ryton Tyne and Wear | A− | 5.5 | 85% | 5.1 | 0% |
| 16 | Thurnscoe South Yorkshire | A− | 9.4 | 100% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 17 | Shaftesbury Dorset | A− | 2.8 | 92% | 2.3 | 44% |
| 18 | Aveley Essex | A− | 3.4 | 84% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 19 | Shanklin Isle of Wight | A− | 1.4 | 33% | 4.5 | 29% |
| 20 | Irthlingborough Northamptonshire | A− | 4.7 | 94% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 21 | Alfreton Derbyshire | B+ | 4.3 | 100% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 22 | Winnersh Berkshire | B+ | 9.6 | 80% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 23 | Frodsham Cheshire | B+ | 2.5 | 67% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 24 | Higham Ferrers Northamptonshire | B+ | 3.5 | 93% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 25 | Sandiacre Derbyshire | B+ | 2.6 | 94% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 26 | Hayle Cornwall | B+ | 1.4 | 72% | 3.4 | 6% |
| 27 | Banstead Surrey | B+ | 2.4 | 66% | 5.2 | 3% |
| 28 | Cinderford Gloucestershire | B+ | 1.7 | 80% | 4.7 | 4% |
| 29 | Ashbourne Derbyshire | B | 1.9 | 92% | 2.7 | 14% |
| 30 | Cockermouth Cumbria | B | 2.6 | 81% | 2.2 | 42% |
| 31 | Pontllanfraith Gwent | B | 3.7 | 93% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 32 | Ampthill Bedfordshire | B | 6.8 | 71% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 33 | Hemsworth West Yorkshire | B | 3.6 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 34 | Gatley Greater Manchester | B | 5.7 | 66% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 35 | Clay Cross Derbyshire | B | 2.6 | 88% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 36 | South Kirkby West Yorkshire | B | 3 | 97% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 37 | Marlborough Wiltshire | B | 1.2 | 72% | 3.8 | 100% |
| 38 | Tiptree Essex | B | 2.7 | 90% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 39 | Perton Staffordshire | B | 2.4 | 93% | 3 | 0% |
| 40 | Yaxley Cambridgeshire | B− | 2.6 | 90% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 41 | Hornsea East Riding of Yorkshire | B− | 2.7 | 90% | 0.6 | 0% |
| 42 | Whitnash Warwickshire | B− | 2 | 95% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 43 | Cullompton Devon | B− | 3.2 | 100% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 44 | Hook Hampshire | B− | 2.4 | 80% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 45 | West End and Chobham Surrey | B− | 3.3 | 65% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 46 | Caister-on-Sea Norfolk | C+ | 1.1 | 58% | 2.1 | 21% |
| 47 | Wideopen Tyne and Wear | C+ | 2.1 | 75% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 48 | Okehampton Devon | C+ | 0.9 | 85% | 2.2 | 37% |
| 49 | Barwell Leicestershire | C | 1.7 | 90% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 50 | Milnrow Greater Manchester | C | 2.9 | 58% | 3 | 0% |
| 51 | Kinmel Bay Clwyd | C | 1.8 | 76% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 52 | Totnes Devon | C | 0.4 | 65% | 3.3 | 11% |
| 53 | Ferryhill County Durham | C− | 1.5 | 94% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 54 | Pencoed Mid Glamorgan | C− | 2.8 | 52% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 55 | Sileby Leicestershire | C− | 1 | 80% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 56 | Shifnal Shropshire | D | 1 | 89% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 57 | Brandon Suffolk | D | 0.8 | 39% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 58 | Littleport Cambridgeshire | D | 1 | 71% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 59 | Harworth and Bircotes Nottinghamshire | D | 1.9 | 64% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 60 | Kirkham Lancashire | D− | 1.3 | 66% | 1.3 | 0% |
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Okehampton’s built-up area.
The biggest is Simmons Park, 2.9 ha (7 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
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 1,400 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 11 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 828 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.
37% of the land within 5 km of Okehampton is National Park or National Landscape, more than 86% of UK towns. Dartmoor National Park covers 956 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
37 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Okehampton 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 town.
6 regional routes pass through, including the Tarka Trail, Dartmoor Way, Mary Michael Pilgrims Way and Devonshire Heartland Way.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
Historic England’s register of parks and gardens, and the listed buildings and scheduled monuments that stand inside Okehampton’s named parks.
2.9 ha. A registered historic park (Grade II). 1 listed structure stands inside it or at its edge.
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 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) | 8.4 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 14 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 154 | 120 | 99 | 81 | 75 | 74 | 79 | 86 | 91 | 140 | 151 | 170 |
June is the driest month (74 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 170 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 28 nights a year. The climate in Okehampton →
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.
Okehampton 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.
Plus 2 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Plus 3 hills and peaks without a name on the map.
Plus 1 waterfall without a name on the map.
Plus 1 picnic site without a name on the map.
Plus 7 playgrounds 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Okehampton | C+ | 0.9 | 85% | 37% |
| North Tawton 5.9 mi | B− | 2.9 | 100% | 0% |
| Chagford 8.3 mi | A+ | 4.7 | 100% | 98% |
| Winkleigh 8.3 mi | C | 1.9 | 100% | 0% |
| Bow 8.8 mi | C | 1.9 | 100% | 0% |
| Moretonhampstead 11.4 mi | C | 0.6 | 81% | 100% |
| Copplestone 12.0 mi | D | 1.1 | 88% | 0% |
Chagford, 8.3 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. North Tawton, Chagford and Winkleigh have at least twice Okehampton’s green space per resident.
Simmons Park, 2.9 ha (7 acres), with 0.7 km of path. 1 named park, garden or playing field is in the town or within 400 m of it.
It covers 956 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
7 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Tarka Trail, Dartmoor Way and Mary Michael Pilgrims Way.
Instow Beach, 22 mi from the edge of the town, then West Appledore (23 mi). Okehampton itself is inland.
85% 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.
Simmons Park (Grade II) is on Historic England’s register of parks and gardens.
Paths are thinner than most towns: 2.2 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 37% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 11% (0.9 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 Okehampton’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.