Photo: Jack Hill · CC BY-SA 2.033% of the land within 5 km of Flamstead is National Park or National Landscape
The Chilterns National Landscape reaches the edge of Flamstead. Parks and playing fields in Flamstead add up to 2.1 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 82% of residents. Flamstead grades B for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Flamstead grades B for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Flamstead, 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.
Flamstead is 21st of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,000 to 1,100 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Flamstead stands out most for path per km²: only 24 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 33 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lizard Cornwall | A+ | 2.3 | 100% | 3.3 | 30% |
| 2 | Uplyme Devon | A+ | 2.4 | 100% | 3 | 61% |
| 3 | Frampton on Severn Gloucestershire | A+ | 11 | 100% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 4 | Bromham Wiltshire | A+ | 5.8 | 100% | 3.3 | 13% |
| 5 | Blagdon Somerset | A | 3.3 | 100% | 2.9 | 62% |
| 6 | Colney Heath Hertfordshire | A | 8.7 | 100% | 7.4 | 0% |
| 7 | Newnham Gloucestershire | A | 4.2 | 100% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 8 | Heather Leicestershire | A | 16.9 | 100% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 9 | Blockley Gloucestershire | A | 2.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 86% |
| 10 | Silverdale Lancashire | A | 2.3 | 46% | 3.9 | 76% |
| 11 | North Curry Somerset | A | 6.2 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 12 | Furness Vale Derbyshire | A− | 2 | 78% | 5 | 36% |
| 13 | Chedgrave Norfolk | A− | 3 | 100% | 1.7 | 26% |
| 14 | Plumpton Green East Sussex | A− | 4.6 | 54% | 3.6 | 37% |
| 15 | Ardleigh Essex | A− | 3.2 | 100% | 1.5 | 21% |
| 16 | Hyde Heath Buckinghamshire | B+ | 5.4 | 68% | 2.1 | 81% |
| 17 | Crowlas Cornwall | B+ | 3.3 | 73% | 1.1 | 23% |
| 18 | Five Ash Down East Sussex | B+ | 2.8 | 0% | 4.1 | 43% |
| 19 | Avening Gloucestershire | B | 0.9 | 100% | 2.3 | 97% |
| 20 | Morchard Bishop Devon | B | 2.6 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 21 | Flamstead Hertfordshire | B | 2.1 | 82% | 2.7 | 33% |
| 22 | Llanymynech Shropshire | B | 2 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 23 | Minley Hampshire | B− | 5.7 | 0% | 6.5 | 0% |
| 24 | Sharnford Leicestershire | B− | 1.9 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 25 | High Shincliffe County Durham | B− | 0.5 | 100% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 26 | Ettington Warwickshire | B− | 3.3 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 27 | Coopersale Essex | B− | 1.1 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 28 | Carleton-in-Craven North Yorkshire | C+ | 0.4 | 100% | 2.3 | 10% |
| 29 | Draycott Somerset | C+ | 2.1 | 68% | 2.1 | 46% |
| 30 | Sutterton Lincolnshire | C+ | 2.8 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 31 | Weston Staffordshire | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 1 | 4% |
| 32 | Simister Greater Manchester | C | 16.6 | 0% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 33 | Warmington Northamptonshire | C | 1.6 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 34 | Little Melton Norfolk | C | 4.2 | 72% | 2 | 0% |
| 35 | Hilton Cambridgeshire | C | 6.8 | 70% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 36 | Huby (Hambleton) North Yorkshire | C | 2.4 | 75% | 1.5 | 2% |
| 37 | Elswick Lancashire | C | 1.8 | 100% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 38 | Freethorpe Norfolk | C− | 2.3 | 26% | 0.7 | 61% |
| 39 | Kimbolton Cambridgeshire | C− | 2.4 | 50% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 40 | Ansley Warwickshire | C− | 1.8 | 64% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 41 | Stebbing Essex | C− | 2.4 | 70% | 2 | 0% |
| 42 | Castle Hedingham Essex | C− | 1.7 | 52% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 43 | Tolleshunt Knights Essex | C− | 3.4 | 41% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 44 | Surfleet Lincolnshire | C− | 4.2 | 0% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 45 | Gorefield Cambridgeshire | D | 2.9 | 67% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 46 | New Quay Dyfed | D | 1.2 | 30% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 47 | Skidby East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 2.8 | 56% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 48 | Snitterfield Warwickshire | D | 2.4 | 63% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 49 | Crundale Dyfed | D | 1.5 | 57% | 0.5 | 5% |
| 50 | Napton on the Hill Warwickshire | D | 0.4 | 69% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 51 | Wisbech St Mary Cambridgeshire | D | 1.8 | 69% | 0.2 | 0% |
| 52 | Horsham St Faith Norfolk | D | 0.9 | 52% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 53 | Henham Essex | D | 0 | 0% | 3 | 0% |
| 54 | Methwold Norfolk | D− | 1.8 | 61% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 55 | Hockliffe Bedfordshire | D− | 1.2 | 49% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 56 | South Hykeham Lincolnshire | D− | 0.2 | 0% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 57 | Pencader Dyfed | D− | 1.2 | 30% | 0.1 | 0% |
| 58 | Wainfleet St Mary Lincolnshire | D− | 0.1 | 0% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 59 | Netheravon Wiltshire | D− | 0.4 | 0% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 60 | Leeming Bar North Yorkshire | D− | 0.7 | 0% | 0.9 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Flamstead’s built-up area.
8 in 10 Flamstead 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 200 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Flamstead
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.
Chilterns
33% of the land within 5 km of Flamstead is National Park or National Landscape, more than 85% of UK towns.
7 waymarked walks pass through or near Flamstead
19 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Flamstead and the kilometre around it, 2.7 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 Ver Valley Walk 2 has 10 km of local walk within 2 km of the village. 3 regional routes pass through, including the Hertfordshire Way, The Chiltern Way and River Ver Trail.
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 Flamstead: 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) | 8.3 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 16.7 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.7 | 7.8 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 14 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 72 | 53 | 44 | 52 | 52 | 54 | 52 | 65 | 56 | 76 | 77 | 71 |
March is the driest month (44 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 22 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 77 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 47 nights a year. The climate in Flamstead →
2 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
Flamstead 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.
Every named place, with directions
Playgrounds 2
Plus 2 playgrounds 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.
Harpenden, 3.7 miles away, grades B+, the best next door: 84% of its residents live within 400 m of a park.
Questions about the outdoors in Flamstead
Is Flamstead near a National Park?
It covers 838 km² and was designated in 1990.
What are the best walks near Flamstead?
7 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the Ver Valley Walk 2, Ver Valley Walk 3 and Hertfordshire Way.
What is the nearest beach to Flamstead?
The Beach, 14 mi from the edge of the village, then Stort Beach (23 mi). Flamstead itself is inland.
How many people in Flamstead live near a park?
82% 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 Flamstead?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Flamstead good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.7 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 50% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 49% (2.1 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 Flamstead’s overall grade.
Where Flamstead’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.