Photo: Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0Topsham is on the coast
The sea makes up 7% of the area within 5 km. The East Devon National Landscape begins 3.1 mi from the town’s edge. 76% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park or playing field. Topsham grades B− for the outdoors: #27 of 47 in Devon. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors town is Topsham?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Topsham’s strongest suit is the sea, followed by the East Devon National Landscape close by.
Topsham grades B− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Topsham, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
100
100
100
100
100
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.
Topsham is 24th of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 4,000 to 4,400 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against towns its size, Topsham stands out most for path per km²: only 24 of the other 59 have more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hextable Kent | A+ | 6.7 | 100% | 5.1 | 9% |
| 2 | West Malling Kent | A+ | 8.7 | 100% | 3.4 | 21% |
| 3 | Telscombe Cliffs East Sussex | A+ | 3 | 58% | 5.1 | 42% |
| 4 | Southbourne West Sussex | A | 1.3 | 92% | 3.3 | 64% |
| 5 | Pitstone Buckinghamshire | A | 1.6 | 100% | 4.2 | 40% |
| 6 | Denaby Main South Yorkshire | A | 10.4 | 100% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 7 | Tenby Dyfed | A | 2.1 | 88% | 2.5 | 21% |
| 8 | Milton Cambridgeshire | A | 10.4 | 100% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 9 | Loftus North Yorkshire | A− | 1.9 | 90% | 2 | 31% |
| 10 | Arborfield Garrison Berkshire | A− | 10.4 | 95% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 11 | Hunstanton Norfolk | A− | 3.7 | 71% | 1.4 | 31% |
| 12 | Prestbury Gloucestershire | A− | 1.6 | 80% | 5.3 | 51% |
| 13 | Fairford Gloucestershire | A− | 3.4 | 100% | 1.8 | 17% |
| 14 | Lofthouse and Robin Hood West Yorkshire | B+ | 3.4 | 93% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 15 | Bearwood Dorset | B+ | 2.5 | 100% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 16 | Ratby Leicestershire | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 4.8 | 0% |
| 17 | Bramley and Wonersh Surrey | B+ | 1.7 | 77% | 3.5 | 59% |
| 18 | Brampton Cumbria | B | 2 | 92% | 2.2 | 9% |
| 19 | Saltford Somerset | B | 1.6 | 75% | 3.6 | 24% |
| 20 | Bourton-on-the-Water Gloucestershire | B | 0.9 | 79% | 3.3 | 100% |
| 21 | Penrhyn Bay Clwyd | B− | 0.6 | 68% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 22 | Stoney Stanton Leicestershire | B− | 2.5 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 23 | Woodford Halse Northamptonshire | B− | 3.6 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 24 | Topsham Devon | B− | 1.9 | 76% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 25 | Martock Somerset | B− | 2.9 | 85% | 3 | 0% |
| 26 | Easington Lane Tyne and Wear | B− | 0.9 | 100% | 4 | 0% |
| 27 | Wilton Wiltshire | B− | 1.4 | 94% | 1.6 | 45% |
| 28 | Ferndale Mid Glamorgan | B− | 3.6 | 88% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 29 | Woburn Sands Buckinghamshire | C+ | 1.1 | 94% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 30 | Kessingland Suffolk | C+ | 0.9 | 70% | 1.9 | 19% |
| 31 | Send Surrey | C+ | 2.6 | 28% | 3.3 | 5% |
| 32 | Old Tupton Derbyshire | C+ | 2.3 | 73% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 33 | Eaton Bray and Edlesborough Bedfordshire | C+ | 2.6 | 72% | 1.7 | 29% |
| 34 | Thorpe Hesley South Yorkshire | C+ | 1.8 | 80% | 4 | 0% |
| 35 | Sandwich Kent | C+ | 2.1 | 51% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 36 | Sible Hedingham Essex | C+ | 0.9 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 37 | Holmfield West Yorkshire | C+ | 2.8 | 74% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 38 | Knebworth Hertfordshire | C+ | 1.5 | 81% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 39 | Warton (Fylde) Lancashire | C | 1.3 | 92% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 40 | South Darenth and Sutton at Hone Kent | C | 1.8 | 43% | 2.7 | 10% |
| 41 | Brayton North Yorkshire | C | 0.8 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 42 | Deanshanger Northamptonshire | C | 1.5 | 93% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 43 | Uppingham Rutland | C | 2.2 | 89% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 44 | Branston Lincolnshire | C | 2.1 | 86% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 45 | Beck Row Suffolk | C | 5.3 | 76% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 46 | Llangennech Dyfed | C | 1.6 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 47 | Nelson Gwent | C | 2.1 | 88% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 48 | Ellesmere Shropshire | C− | 12.5 | 54% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 49 | Doddington and Wimblington Cambridgeshire | C− | 2.5 | 73% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 50 | West Kingsdown Kent | D | 0.8 | 28% | 1.6 | 52% |
| 51 | Doddinghurst Essex | D | 1.6 | 60% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 52 | North Weald Bassett Essex | D | 1.4 | 67% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 53 | Middleton Cheney Northamptonshire | D | 0.9 | 70% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 54 | Blidworth Nottinghamshire | D | 0.5 | 23% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 55 | Kegworth Leicestershire | D | 0.4 | 54% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 56 | Llantrisant Mid Glamorgan | D− | 0.6 | 42% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 57 | Wheatley Oxfordshire | D− | 0.2 | 34% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 58 | Warboys Cambridgeshire | D− | 0.4 | 67% | 1 | 0% |
| 59 | Pinchbeck Lincolnshire | D− | 1 | 49% | 1 | 0% |
| 60 | Little Eriswell Suffolk | D− | 0.1 | 0% | 1.5 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Topsham’s built-up area.
8 in 10 Topsham residents live within a 5-minute walk of 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).
About 1,000 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 30 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 140 residents.
The East Devon National Landscape is 3.1 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.
Protected landscape begins just outside the 5 km ring the Outdoors Grade measures, so Topsham scores 0% on it even though the East Devon National Landscape is 3.1 mi away. Dartmoor National Park covers 956 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
6 waymarked walks pass through or near Topsham
34 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Topsham and the kilometre around it, 2.9 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
3 regional routes pass through, including the Orange Way, Exe Valley Way and Two Counties Way.
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 Topsham: May to 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) | 8.4 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 12 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 92 | 65 | 64 | 62 | 51 | 54 | 47 | 60 | 57 | 89 | 100 | 95 |
July is the driest month (47 mm) and the warmest (highs of 22 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 100 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 33 nights a year. The climate in Topsham →
The coast and beaches near Topsham
7% of the area within 5 km of Topsham is sea. 4 beaches are mapped within 5 km, 0 with a name.
Sea: the area outside the ONS coastline (mean high water). Bathing water quality is published by the Environment Agency (England) and Natural Resources Wales; check it before swimming.
12 viewpoints and 30 playgrounds
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.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 12
Plus 12 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Nature reserves 7
Picnic sites 4
Plus 4 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 30
Plus 28 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Slipways 4
Plus 4 slipways 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.
Woodbury, 3.1 miles away, grades A, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Clyst St Mary has at least twice Topsham’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Topsham
Is Topsham near a National Park?
Yes. Dartmoor National Park begins 7.2 mi west of the town’s edge. It covers 956 km² and has been a National Park since 1951. The nearest protected landscape of any kind is the East Devon National Landscape, 3.1 mi away.
What are the best walks near Topsham?
6 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Orange Way, Exe Valley Way and Two Counties Way.
How many people in Topsham live near a park?
76% 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 Topsham?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Topsham good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.9 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 58% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 42% (1.9 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 Topsham’s overall grade.
Where Topsham’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.