Photo: Clem Rutter, Rochester Kent · CC BY-SA 3.035% of the land within 5 km of Burham is National Park or National Landscape
The Kent Downs National Landscape reaches the edge of Burham. Parks and playing fields in Burham add up to 1.4 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. 77% of residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park or playing field. Burham grades C+ for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Burham?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Burham’s strongest suit is protected countryside on the doorstep, followed by the North Downs Way. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Burham grades C+ for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Burham, 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.
Burham is 25th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,200 to 1,400 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Burham stands out most for path per km²: only 14 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 43 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hightown Hampshire | A+ | 15.7 | 100% | 3.5 | 58% |
| 2 | Rough Common Kent | A+ | 11 | 100% | 9.2 | 1% |
| 3 | Box Wiltshire | A+ | 3.8 | 100% | 3.9 | 56% |
| 4 | Aldington Kent | A+ | 4.6 | 100% | 3.8 | 11% |
| 5 | Holybourne Hampshire | A+ | 12.2 | 100% | 2.7 | 23% |
| 6 | Pwll Dyfed | A | 21.6 | 64% | 2.6 | 19% |
| 7 | Amberley Gloucestershire | A | 13.7 | 0% | 6.3 | 87% |
| 8 | Cliffs End Kent | A | 6.9 | 100% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 9 | Compton Hampshire | A− | 18.8 | 61% | 3.6 | 28% |
| 10 | Sherford Devon | A− | 3.2 | 100% | 1.5 | 28% |
| 11 | South Heath Buckinghamshire | A− | 20.4 | 0% | 3 | 85% |
| 12 | Exton Devon | A− | 2.2 | 100% | 0.6 | 7% |
| 13 | New Brancepeth County Durham | B+ | 2.6 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 14 | Baddesley Ensor Warwickshire | B+ | 18.3 | 100% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 15 | Marshfield Gloucestershire | B+ | 4.9 | 42% | 2.7 | 99% |
| 16 | Welland Worcestershire | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 1.9 | 38% |
| 17 | Farningham Kent | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2 | 33% |
| 18 | Lidlington Bedfordshire | B | 1.9 | 100% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 19 | Beer Devon | B | 1.6 | 50% | 2.2 | 43% |
| 20 | Weir Lancashire | B | 0.6 | 100% | 6 | 0% |
| 21 | Codmore Hill West Sussex | B− | 3.5 | 0% | 2.7 | 46% |
| 22 | Blindley Heath Surrey | B− | 3.2 | 79% | 2.2 | 1% |
| 23 | Blakeney Gloucestershire | B− | 2.1 | 68% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 24 | Fowlmere Cambridgeshire | B− | 4.5 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 25 | Burham Kent | C+ | 1.4 | 77% | 2.8 | 35% |
| 26 | Belford Northumberland | C+ | 1.2 | 83% | 0.9 | 21% |
| 27 | Perranarworthal Cornwall | C+ | 2.5 | 76% | 1.6 | 19% |
| 28 | Gaerwen Gwynedd | C+ | 1.5 | 100% | 0.4 | 7% |
| 29 | Claverdon Warwickshire | C+ | 1.2 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 30 | Weobley Herefordshire | C+ | 1.6 | 100% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 31 | North Duffield North Yorkshire | C | 2.6 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 32 | Biddulph Moor Staffordshire | C | 8.4 | 43% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 33 | Silkstone Common South Yorkshire | C | 1.5 | 63% | 4.9 | 0% |
| 34 | Quainton Buckinghamshire | C | 3.8 | 69% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 35 | Nefyn Gwynedd | C | 0 | 0% | 2 | 24% |
| 36 | Foxton Cambridgeshire | C | 2.3 | 84% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 37 | Atworth Wiltshire | C− | 1.5 | 62% | 2.2 | 13% |
| 38 | Ninfield East Sussex | C− | 1.8 | 50% | 1.4 | 50% |
| 39 | Spratton Northamptonshire | C− | 2.3 | 85% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 40 | Weeley Essex | C− | 7.5 | 0% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 41 | Langthorpe North Yorkshire | C− | 0.3 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 42 | Wingham Kent | C− | 2.2 | 53% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 43 | Aldbrough East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 2.1 | 26% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 44 | Wooden Dyfed | D | 0.1 | 0% | 0.4 | 18% |
| 45 | Yardley Gobion Northamptonshire | D | 1.2 | 47% | 3 | 0% |
| 46 | East Markham Nottinghamshire | D | 2.2 | 46% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 47 | Bampton Devon | D | 1.5 | 22% | 1.6 | 5% |
| 48 | Pagham West Sussex | D | 0.3 | 0% | 2 | 0% |
| 49 | Heddon-on-the-Wall Northumberland | D | 0.6 | 70% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 50 | Colsterworth Lincolnshire | D | 1.3 | 67% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 51 | Hockwold cum Wilton Norfolk | D | 1.6 | 75% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 52 | Garsington Oxfordshire | D | 0.4 | 65% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 53 | Appleby Magna Leicestershire | D | 1.7 | 46% | 2 | 0% |
| 54 | Saham Toney Norfolk | D | 3 | 18% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 55 | Croeserw West Glamorgan | D | 1.3 | 33% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 56 | Byfield Northamptonshire | D | 1.9 | 48% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 57 | Hadham Cross Hertfordshire | D | 0 | 0% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 58 | Deeping St Nicholas Lincolnshire | D− | 0.7 | 80% | 0 | 0% |
| 59 | Hunger Hill Greater Manchester | D− | 0 | 0% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 60 | Witheridge Devon | D− | 0.5 | 36% | 1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Burham’s built-up area.
8 in 10 Burham 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 300 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 8 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 162 residents.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Burham
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.
Kent Downs
35% of the land within 5 km of Burham is National Park or National Landscape, more than 85% of UK towns.
Burham is on the North Downs Way
20 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Burham and the kilometre around it, 2.8 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
The North Downs Way, a national route, passes Burham. 3 regional routes pass through, including the Augustine Camino, Medway Valley Walk and Otford to Canterbury Cathedral.
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 Burham: 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 | 16.6 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 7.9 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 69 | 58 | 46 | 51 | 52 | 52 | 47 | 58 | 58 | 82 | 83 | 78 |
March is the driest month (46 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 83 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 39 nights a year. The climate in Burham →
8 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
Burham 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
Hills and peaks 1
Picnic sites 1
Playgrounds 8
Plus 8 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Campsites 3
Plus 1 campsite 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.
Halling, 2.4 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Eccles, Snodland and Halling have at least twice Burham’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Burham
Is Burham near a National Park?
It covers 879 km² and was designated in 1968.
What are the best walks near Burham?
4 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the Augustine Camino, Medway Valley Walk and Otford to Canterbury Cathedral.
What is the nearest beach to Burham?
The Beach, 8.3 mi from the edge of the village, then Egypt Bay Beach (11 mi). Burham itself is inland.
How many people in Burham live near a park?
77% 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 Burham?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Burham good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.8 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 53% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 23% (1.4 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 Burham’s overall grade.
Where Burham’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.