Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Marathon · CC BY-SA 2.0The High Weald National Landscape and the Kent Downs National Landscape both begin about a mile from the town’s edge. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 65% of residents. Parks and playing fields in Tonbridge add up to 2.1 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Tonbridge grades B− for the outdoors: #55 of 87 in Kent. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Tonbridge’s strongest suit is protected countryside on the doorstep, followed by its historic parks. Where it falls short is how far some homes are from a park.
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Tonbridge, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
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.
The 60 UK towns and cities of 32,700 to 39,900 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Tonbridge falls furthest behind on path per km², where 50 of the 59 others do better.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Locks Heath Hampshire | A+ | 3.5 | 91% | 3.7 | 4% |
| 2 | Great Malvern Worcestershire | A+ | 3.9 | 90% | 6 | 38% |
| 3 | Dover Kent | A+ | 3 | 86% | 2.9 | 29% |
| 4 | Hyde Greater Manchester | A | 4.3 | 91% | 3.9 | 1% |
| 5 | Epsom Surrey | A | 5.7 | 80% | 4.8 | 2% |
| 6 | Burgess Hill West Sussex | A | 2.4 | 87% | 5 | 27% |
| 7 | Aldershot Hampshire | A | 3.4 | 77% | 6.3 | 17% |
| 8 | Skelmersdale Lancashire | A | 7.8 | 91% | 5.4 | 0% |
| 9 | Merthyr Tydfil Mid Glamorgan | A | 3.3 | 89% | 3.2 | 29% |
| 10 | Ilkeston Derbyshire | A | 3.7 | 98% | 5 | 0% |
| 11 | Rustington West Sussex | A− | 2.1 | 78% | 2.7 | 25% |
| 12 | Dunstable Bedfordshire | A− | 2 | 78% | 8 | 29% |
| 13 | Sutton in Ashfield Nottinghamshire | A− | 4.3 | 94% | 4 | 0% |
| 14 | Caversham Berkshire | A− | 2.5 | 77% | 4.3 | 32% |
| 15 | Accrington Lancashire | A− | 2.6 | 79% | 5.6 | 0% |
| 16 | Chorley Lancashire | A− | 5 | 88% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 17 | Nelson Lancashire | A− | 1.8 | 85% | 5.2 | 15% |
| 18 | St Neots Cambridgeshire | A− | 3.5 | 91% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 19 | Didcot Oxfordshire | A− | 1.6 | 88% | 3.8 | 39% |
| 20 | Exmouth Devon | A− | 1.4 | 82% | 2.6 | 21% |
| 21 | Leyland Lancashire | B+ | 4.6 | 91% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 22 | Waterlooville Hampshire | B+ | 1 | 66% | 5.2 | 18% |
| 23 | Chippenham Wiltshire | B+ | 2.8 | 76% | 3.9 | 7% |
| 24 | Fulwood Lancashire | B+ | 3.5 | 87% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 25 | Swadlincote Derbyshire | B+ | 4.1 | 84% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 26 | Fleet Hampshire | B+ | 3.3 | 79% | 5.5 | 0% |
| 27 | Pudsey West Yorkshire | B+ | 1.9 | 94% | 5.1 | 0% |
| 28 | Hucknall Nottinghamshire | B+ | 3 | 87% | 4 | 0% |
| 29 | Aberdare Mid Glamorgan | B+ | 4.6 | 84% | 1.8 | 19% |
| 30 | Hitchin Hertfordshire | B+ | 1.5 | 83% | 4.4 | 10% |
| 31 | Rowley Regis West Midlands | B+ | 4.1 | 71% | 5.5 | 0% |
| 32 | West Bridgford Nottinghamshire | B+ | 2.2 | 86% | 7.7 | 0% |
| 33 | Brighouse West Yorkshire | B | 2.5 | 91% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 34 | Wigston Leicestershire | B | 2.9 | 88% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 35 | Billingham County Durham | B | 4.7 | 86% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 36 | Whitley Bay Tyne and Wear | B | 1.9 | 82% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 37 | Warwick Warwickshire | B | 3 | 85% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 38 | Denton Greater Manchester | B | 2.4 | 88% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 39 | Letchworth Hertfordshire | B | 2.2 | 85% | 4.8 | 0% |
| 40 | Loughton Essex | B | 2.9 | 74% | 5.5 | 0% |
| 41 | Abingdon-on-Thames Oxfordshire | B | 2.1 | 91% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 42 | Borehamwood Hertfordshire | B | 1.8 | 97% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 43 | Bicester Oxfordshire | B | 2.1 | 99% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 44 | Prescot Merseyside | B | 3.5 | 94% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 45 | Blyth Northumberland | B | 1.6 | 83% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 46 | Chadderton Greater Manchester | B | 1.9 | 87% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 47 | Caerphilly Gwent | B | 2.6 | 82% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 48 | Morecambe Lancashire | B− | 0.8 | 84% | 2.2 | 2% |
| 49 | Redcar North Yorkshire | B− | 2.6 | 79% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 50 | Canvey Island Essex | B− | 1.5 | 86% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 51 | Tonbridge Kent | B− | 2.1 | 65% | 2.6 | 38% |
| 52 | Camberley Surrey | C+ | 2 | 73% | 4.8 | 0% |
| 53 | Billericay Essex | C+ | 4.1 | 70% | 3 | 0% |
| 54 | Pontefract West Yorkshire | C+ | 2.6 | 84% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 55 | New Haw, West Byfleet and Sheerwater Surrey | C+ | 2.2 | 69% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 56 | Horndean Hampshire | C+ | 0.9 | 57% | 3.3 | 53% |
| 57 | Long Eaton Derbyshire | C | 1.8 | 74% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 58 | Bridlington East Riding of Yorkshire | C | 0.8 | 80% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 59 | Bilston West Midlands | C− | 1.5 | 76% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 60 | Bromsgrove Worcestershire | C− | 1.4 | 75% | 2.6 | 0% |
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Tonbridge’s built-up area.
The biggest is Haysden Country Park, 77 ha (190 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
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 13,000 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 10 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 3,614 residents.
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.
38% of the land within 5 km of Tonbridge is National Park or National Landscape, more than 87% of UK towns.
93 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Tonbridge and the kilometre around it, 2.6 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
Close to home, the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk has 10 km of local walk within 2 km of the town. 2 regional routes pass through, including the Wealdway and Medway Valley Walk.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
Historic England’s register of parks and gardens, and the listed buildings and scheduled monuments that stand inside Tonbridge’s named parks.
A listed building or monument counts when it sits inside the park’s OS Open Greenspace outline (to about 15 m), so a few at the boundary are included. Historic England, National Heritage List for England.
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 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 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) | 77 | 56 | 47 | 49 | 50 | 48 | 46 | 52 | 51 | 80 | 80 | 79 |
July is the driest month (46 mm) and the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 80 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 47 nights a year. The climate in Tonbridge →
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.
Tonbridge is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
Check the water before you swim. The Environment Agency tests designated bathing waters from May to September and publishes a rating for each beach.
Plus 8 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Plus 2 campsites without a name on the map.
Plus 1 slipway without a name on the map.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonbridge | B− | 2.1 | 65% | 38% |
| Hildenborough 1.4 mi | B+ | 6.5 | 40% | 46% |
| Leigh 2.7 mi | A | 3.0 | 100% | 49% |
| Hadlow 3.1 mi | C− | 1.7 | 61% | 11% |
| Southborough 3.2 mi | A− | 2.8 | 94% | 57% |
| Five Oak Green 3.5 mi | A− | 3.0 | 100% | 30% |
| Plaxtol 4.2 mi | B− | 2.6 | 57% | 40% |
Leigh, 2.7 miles away, grades A, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Hildenborough has at least twice Tonbridge’s green space per resident.
Haysden Country Park, 77 ha (190 acres), with 6.9 km of path. Racecourse Spotsground (20 ha) is second. 3 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
The High Weald National Landscape reaches the edge of Tonbridge. It covers 1,462 km² and was designated in 1983.
5 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Wealdway, Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk and Eden Valley Walk. Haysden Country Park alone has 6.9 km of path.
The Beach, 14 mi from the edge of the town, then Northfleet Beach (16 mi). Tonbridge itself is inland.
65% 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%.
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Somerhill (Grade II) is on Historic England’s register of parks and gardens.
About average for paths: 2.6 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 48% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 48% (2.1 ha per 1,000 residents).
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 Tonbridge’s overall grade.
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.