Photo: David Squire · CC BY-SA 2.041% of the land within 5 km of Sandford is National Park or National Landscape
The Dorset National Landscape reaches the edge of Sandford. Footpaths add up to 38 km in the village and the kilometre around it, 4.7 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Sandford add up to 0.3 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Sandford grades B for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Sandford?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Sandford’s strongest suit is protected countryside on the doorstep, followed by dense footpaths. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Sandford grades B for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Sandford, 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.
Sandford is 21st of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,900 to 2,100 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Sandford stands out most for path per km²: only 1 of the other 59 has more. It falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 57 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meliden Clwyd | A+ | 4.2 | 100% | 4.2 | 21% |
| 2 | Vigo Village Kent | A+ | 33.3 | 100% | 2.9 | 44% |
| 3 | Llanfoist Gwent | A+ | 10.7 | 86% | 4.2 | 57% |
| 4 | Ditchingham Norfolk | A+ | 17.2 | 100% | 2.9 | 13% |
| 5 | Fowey Cornwall | A | 3.2 | 91% | 2.1 | 32% |
| 6 | Lower Kingswood Surrey | A | 4.7 | 75% | 6.6 | 22% |
| 7 | Bournmoor County Durham | A | 11 | 100% | 4 | 0% |
| 8 | Chiseldon Wiltshire | A | 1.8 | 100% | 3.4 | 69% |
| 9 | Upper Rissington Gloucestershire | A | 6.2 | 100% | 1.2 | 100% |
| 10 | Churchill Somerset | A | 2.8 | 84% | 3.9 | 39% |
| 11 | Wrington Somerset | A | 3.2 | 100% | 2.6 | 20% |
| 12 | Machen Gwent | A | 3.5 | 100% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 13 | Y Bala Gwynedd | A | 4 | 100% | 1.4 | 67% |
| 14 | Great Haywood Staffordshire | A− | 7.1 | 27% | 4.1 | 29% |
| 15 | Stowupland Suffolk | A− | 5.3 | 83% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 16 | Yealmpton Devon | B+ | 1.8 | 87% | 1.8 | 50% |
| 17 | Culverstone Green Kent | B+ | 5.3 | 61% | 2.7 | 42% |
| 18 | Brompton North Yorkshire | B+ | 4.7 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 19 | Valley Gwynedd | B+ | 5 | 33% | 1.2 | 37% |
| 20 | Martlesham Suffolk | B | 2.1 | 69% | 3.8 | 24% |
| 21 | Sandford Dorset | B | 0.3 | 43% | 4.7 | 41% |
| 22 | Welsh Bicknor Gloucestershire | B | 2.7 | 31% | 3.3 | 45% |
| 23 | Wheaton Aston Staffordshire | B− | 2.6 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 24 | Felbridge Surrey | B− | 2 | 80% | 2.4 | 25% |
| 25 | Trelewis Mid Glamorgan | B− | 2.6 | 100% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 26 | Rothbury Northumberland | B− | 1 | 76% | 3.8 | 21% |
| 27 | Barmouth Gwynedd | B− | 0.5 | 60% | 2 | 53% |
| 28 | Northleach Gloucestershire | B− | 1.5 | 68% | 2.6 | 100% |
| 29 | Ightham Kent | C+ | 2 | 30% | 3 | 56% |
| 30 | Audley Staffordshire | C+ | 3.4 | 83% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 31 | Axbridge Somerset | C+ | 1.3 | 72% | 2.8 | 51% |
| 32 | Landkey Devon | C+ | 2.5 | 100% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 33 | Langtoft Lincolnshire | C+ | 2.8 | 100% | 1 | 0% |
| 34 | Whitchurch Somerset | C+ | 2.3 | 47% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 35 | Wychbold Worcestershire | C | 2.1 | 100% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 36 | Clenchwarton Norfolk | C | 2.2 | 87% | 0.3 | 3% |
| 37 | West Haddon Northamptonshire | C | 2.3 | 100% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 38 | Goodwick Dyfed | C | 0.2 | 47% | 1.9 | 25% |
| 39 | Marcham Oxfordshire | C | 1.2 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 40 | Hightown Merseyside | C | 1.7 | 44% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 41 | Longrock Cornwall | C | 0.7 | 60% | 1.2 | 26% |
| 42 | Keyingham East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 1.7 | 100% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 43 | Cadnam and Bartley Hampshire | C− | 0.9 | 30% | 2.4 | 79% |
| 44 | Pool-in-Wharfedale West Yorkshire | C− | 2.1 | 44% | 1.6 | 7% |
| 45 | Ashwell Hertfordshire | C− | 3 | 52% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 46 | Stoke Golding Leicestershire | C− | 1.4 | 85% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 47 | Hibaldstow Lincolnshire | C− | 1.7 | 89% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 48 | Bishop Burton and Cherry Burton East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 2.5 | 78% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 49 | Briston Norfolk | D | 2.7 | 69% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 50 | Broughton Northamptonshire | D | 2.7 | 70% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 51 | Baschurch Shropshire | D | 2.3 | 72% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 52 | Cookley Worcestershire | D | 2.3 | 52% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 53 | Morda Shropshire | D | 0.7 | 84% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 54 | Curry Rivel Somerset | D | 1.9 | 33% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 55 | Greylees Lincolnshire | D | 1.5 | 79% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 56 | Westwoodside Lincolnshire | D− | 1.2 | 33% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 57 | Tollerton Nottinghamshire | D− | 0.6 | 19% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 58 | Rossett Clwyd | D− | 0.3 | 55% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 59 | Wilberfoss East Riding of Yorkshire | D− | 0.7 | 69% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 60 | Bottisham Cambridgeshire | D− | 0 | 0% | 1.3 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Sandford’s built-up area.
4 in 10 Sandford 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 1,100 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 6 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 334 residents.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Sandford
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.
Dorset
41% of the land within 5 km of Sandford is National Park or National Landscape, more than 88% of UK towns. New Forest National Park covers 567 km² and has been a National Park since 2006.
7 waymarked walks pass through or near Sandford
38 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Sandford and the kilometre around it, 4.7 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
Close to home, the Poole Harbour Trails 4 has 11 km of local walk within 2 km of the village. 2 regional routes pass through, including the The Hardy Way and Purbeck 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 Sandford: 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) | 8.4 | 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) | 95 | 66 | 58 | 56 | 49 | 50 | 47 | 59 | 63 | 100 | 108 | 102 |
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 108 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 39 nights a year. The climate in Sandford →
Sandford is near the sea
9% of the area within 5 km of Sandford is sea. 10 beaches are mapped within 5 km, 2 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.
2 viewpoints and 6 playgrounds
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.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 2
Plus 2 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Hills and peaks 2
Playgrounds 6
Plus 4 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Slipways 1
Plus 1 slipway 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.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandford | B | 0.3 | 43% | 41% |
| Wareham 1.2 mi | A | 1.9 | 83% | 56% |
| Lytchett Matravers 3.7 mi | C− | 1.2 | 83% | 5% |
| Upton 3.7 mi | A+ | 9.1 | 84% | 18% |
| Corfe Mullen 5.6 mi | B+ | 3.1 | 72% | 13% |
| Wool 5.6 mi | C+ | 2.3 | 51% | 33% |
| Bere Regis 6.3 mi | A | 39.2 | 100% | 0% |
Upton, 3.7 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: 84% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. Wareham, Lytchett Matravers and Upton have at least twice Sandford’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Sandford
Is Sandford near a National Park?
Yes. New Forest National Park begins 14 mi north-east of the village’s edge. It covers 567 km² and has been a National Park since 2006. The nearest protected landscape of any kind is the Dorset National Landscape, at the edge of the village.
What are the best walks near Sandford?
7 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the Poole Harbour Trails 4, The Hardy Way and Poole Harbour Trails 5b.
How many people in Sandford live near a park?
43% 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 Sandford?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Sandford good for walking?
For paths, yes: 4.7 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 90% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 3% (0.3 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 Sandford’s overall grade.
Where Sandford’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.