Photo: Oast House Archive · CC BY-SA 2.0The Kent Downs National Landscape begins 0.7 mi from Higham
Parks and playing fields in Higham add up to 0.5 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. No park or playing field is mapped within a 5-minute walk of homes in Higham. 18 km of footpaths run through the town and the kilometre around it, 1.8 for every square kilometre. Higham grades C− for the outdoors: #76 of 87 in Kent. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors town is Higham?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Higham’s strongest suit is the Kent Downs National Landscape close by. Where it falls short is how far some homes are from a park.
Higham grades C− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Higham, 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.
Higham is 46th of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 2,500 to 2,800 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Higham falls furthest behind on homes near a park, where 58 of the 59 others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Petworth West Sussex | A+ | 29.6 | 100% | 4.1 | 93% |
| 2 | Ambleside Cumbria | A+ | 6.9 | 92% | 4.6 | 100% |
| 3 | Tywardreath Cornwall | A+ | 4.6 | 100% | 2.5 | 26% |
| 4 | Settle North Yorkshire | A+ | 6.4 | 100% | 3.6 | 73% |
| 5 | Downley Buckinghamshire | A+ | 9.5 | 76% | 7.6 | 71% |
| 6 | Yorkley and Whitecroft Gloucestershire | A | 3.3 | 74% | 6.4 | 1% |
| 7 | Hellingly East Sussex | A | 6.9 | 90% | 3.7 | 11% |
| 8 | Dolgellau Gwynedd | A | 3.6 | 100% | 1.9 | 100% |
| 9 | Hawley Hampshire | A | 6.9 | 92% | 5.8 | 0% |
| 10 | Maple Cross Hertfordshire | A | 3.1 | 100% | 2.9 | 14% |
| 11 | Darenth Kent | A− | 1.8 | 100% | 4.3 | 1% |
| 12 | Newington Kent | A− | 2.3 | 78% | 2.3 | 21% |
| 13 | Combe Martin Devon | A− | 1.8 | 88% | 1.5 | 37% |
| 14 | Avonmouth Bristol | B+ | 2.5 | 100% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 15 | Langold Nottinghamshire | B+ | 13 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 16 | Porthmadog Gwynedd | B+ | 0.9 | 94% | 2 | 41% |
| 17 | Blofield Norfolk | B+ | 2.9 | 100% | 1.5 | 17% |
| 18 | Dipton County Durham | B | 3.2 | 87% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 19 | Farington Moss Lancashire | B | 5.9 | 93% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 20 | Prestbury Cheshire | B | 5.6 | 42% | 3.2 | 6% |
| 21 | Builth Wells Powys | B | 4.9 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 22 | Brynamman Dyfed | B | 1.7 | 100% | 1 | 51% |
| 23 | Mancetter and Witherley Warwickshire | B− | 3.1 | 88% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 24 | Cliffe Woods Kent | B− | 1.7 | 62% | 2.5 | 1% |
| 25 | Halton Lancashire | B− | 0.9 | 100% | 1.7 | 35% |
| 26 | Seer Green Buckinghamshire | B− | 1.7 | 38% | 3.8 | 35% |
| 27 | Grimsargh Lancashire | B− | 2.6 | 67% | 2.8 | 2% |
| 28 | Pucklechurch Gloucestershire | C+ | 1.2 | 64% | 4.2 | 20% |
| 29 | Godstone Surrey | C+ | 1.7 | 52% | 3.7 | 18% |
| 30 | Ashington West Sussex | C+ | 1.3 | 86% | 2.3 | 21% |
| 31 | Hurworth-on-Tees County Durham | C+ | 4.5 | 93% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 32 | Snettisham Norfolk | C+ | 1.1 | 73% | 1.3 | 32% |
| 33 | Endon Staffordshire | C+ | 3 | 89% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 34 | Little Dunmow Essex | C+ | 1.1 | 89% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 35 | Dunchurch Warwickshire | C+ | 7.8 | 68% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 36 | Bosham West Sussex | C+ | 1.2 | 48% | 1.4 | 58% |
| 37 | Heage Derbyshire | C | 1.9 | 78% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 38 | Watlington Norfolk | C | 2.3 | 100% | 0.6 | 0% |
| 39 | South Brent Devon | C | 1.5 | 79% | 0.8 | 64% |
| 40 | Smallfield Surrey | C | 1.6 | 70% | 2.4 | 1% |
| 41 | Marham Norfolk | C | 3.5 | 85% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 42 | Shelley West Yorkshire | C− | 1.2 | 81% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 43 | Wittering Cambridgeshire | C− | 3.1 | 83% | 0.6 | 0% |
| 44 | South Wonston Hampshire | C− | 1.6 | 42% | 2.6 | 7% |
| 45 | Wolston Warwickshire | C− | 1.6 | 89% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 46 | Higham Kent | C− | 0.5 | 0% | 1.8 | 18% |
| 47 | Codicote Hertfordshire | C− | 0.4 | 90% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 48 | Newick East Sussex | C− | 1.7 | 35% | 2.1 | 16% |
| 49 | Hardwick Cambridgeshire | C− | 1.5 | 82% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 50 | Costessey Norfolk | C− | 1.8 | 12% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 51 | West Clyst Devon | C− | 0.6 | 59% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 52 | Saughall Cheshire | D | 2.5 | 27% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 53 | Christleton and Waverton Cheshire | D | 2.4 | 55% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 54 | Tonna West Glamorgan | D | 2.1 | 36% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 55 | Keele Staffordshire | D | 1.1 | 0% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 56 | Watton at Stone Hertfordshire | D | 0.8 | 61% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 57 | St Martins Shropshire | D | 0.6 | 59% | 0.8 | 2% |
| 58 | Swineshead Lincolnshire | D− | 1.2 | 73% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 59 | Manea Cambridgeshire | D− | 1.3 | 63% | 1 | 0% |
| 60 | Cranwell Lincolnshire | D− | 0.5 | 57% | 1.1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Higham’s built-up area.
Few Higham 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 2,600 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 5 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 528 residents.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Higham
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
18% of the land within 5 km of Higham is National Park or National Landscape, more than 76% of UK towns.
2 waymarked walks pass through or near Higham
18 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Higham and the kilometre around it, 1.8 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
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 Higham: 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) | 8.3 | 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 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 23 | 23 | 20 | 16 | 11 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 55 | 41 | 34 | 39 | 42 | 48 | 43 | 46 | 51 | 69 | 60 | 53 |
March is the driest month (34 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 69 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 34 nights a year. The climate in Higham →
Higham is near the sea
9% of the area within 5 km of Higham is sea. 10 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.
5 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
Hills and peaks 3
Playgrounds 5
Plus 5 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.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Higham | C− | 0.5 | 0% | 18% |
| Shorne 1.3 mi | A | 28.3 | 23% | 24% |
| Cliffe Woods 2.1 mi | B− | 1.7 | 62% | 1% |
| Rochester 2.8 mi | A+ | 2.4 | 92% | 23% |
| Cuxton 3.0 mi | A+ | 25.2 | 90% | 44% |
| Chattenden 3.2 mi | B | 1.4 | 100% | 0% |
| Gravesend 3.5 mi | A | 1.4 | 84% | 14% |
Rochester, 2.8 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: 92% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. Shorne, Cliffe Woods and Rochester have at least twice Higham’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Higham
Is Higham near a National Park?
The nearest protected landscape is the Kent Downs National Landscape, 0.7 mi south-west of the town’s edge. It covers 879 km² and was designated in 1968.
What are the best walks near Higham?
2 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Strood Community Trail and Darnley Trail.
How many people in Higham live near a park?
0% 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 Higham?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Higham good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 1.8 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 25% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 5% (0.5 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 Higham’s overall grade.
Where Higham’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.