Oswaldtwistle’s biggest
Rhyddings Park
Park or garden
5.1 ha (13 acres)2.1 km of path
30 minto walk all 2.1 km of path
7 pitchesfootball pitches would fit
Centralin the middle of Oswaldtwistle
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Photo: Mat Fascione · CC BY-SA 2.0B−Outdoors Grade
Outdoors in Oswaldtwistle · parks, paths & countryside
Oswaldtwistle has more footpath per square kilometre than nearly 9 in 10 UK towns
Footpaths add up to 71 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 4.6 for every square kilometre. The Forest Of Bowland National Landscape begins 4.3 mi from the town’s edge. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 94% of residents. Oswaldtwistle grades B− for the outdoors: #42 of 65 in Lancashire. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Green space
1.1 ha
per 1,000 residents
Typical UK town 2.1
Near a park
94%
of residents within 400 m
Typical UK town 83%
Footpaths
71 km
4.6 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical UK town 3.0 per km²
Protected landscape
0%
of the land within 5 km
Forest Of Bowland starts 4.3 mi out, past the 5 km
Character
What kind of outdoors town is Oswaldtwistle?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
A town of footpaths4.6 km of path per km², more than 89% of UK towns. The typical town has 3.0.Countryside close byThe Forest Of Bowland National Landscape starts 4.3 mi north.Less park per person1.1 ha of parks and playing fields per 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1.
Oswaldtwistle’s strongest suit is dense footpaths, followed by the Forest Of Bowland National Landscape close by. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Outdoors grade
Oswaldtwistle grades B− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Oswaldtwistle, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
B−
Better than 48% of UK towns#42 of 65 in Lancashire · 32nd of 60 UK towns its size
Public green space1.1 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
15out of
100
100
A park within a walk94%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)
74out of
100
100
National Park or National Landscape0%of the land within 5 km · Forest Of Bowland begins just past 5 km
31out of
100
100
Footpaths4.6 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
90out of
100
100
The sea0%of the area within 5 km · Inland
42out of
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.
Towns its size
Oswaldtwistle is 32nd of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 10,200 to 11,400 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Outdoors score: the share of UK towns each one beats
Footpath, km per km²
Oswaldtwistle4.6
Towns its size3.2
Lancashire towns3.0
All UK towns3.0
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Oswaldtwistle1.1
Towns its size1.9
Lancashire towns2.0
All UK towns2.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Oswaldtwistle94%
Towns its size81%
Lancashire towns85%
All UK towns83%
Against towns its size, Oswaldtwistle stands out most for path per km²: only 10 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 51 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weybourne Surrey | A+ | 7.1 | 86% | 6.1 | 14% |
| 2 | West End Hampshire | A | 9.1 | 100% | 6.1 | 0% |
| 3 | Brierfield Lancashire | A | 2.1 | 92% | 5.6 | 18% |
| 4 | Penryn Cornwall | A | 1.9 | 91% | 2.6 | 31% |
| 5 | Great Harwood Lancashire | A | 2.2 | 97% | 4.3 | 4% |
| 6 | Godalming Surrey | A− | 4.6 | 73% | 3.1 | 66% |
| 7 | Soham Cambridgeshire | A− | 4.7 | 97% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 8 | Platt Bridge and Abram Greater Manchester | A− | 3.7 | 98% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 9 | Royston South Yorkshire | A− | 7.9 | 97% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 10 | Romiley Greater Manchester | A− | 3.9 | 80% | 3.8 | 1% |
| 11 | Southwater West Sussex | A− | 3.4 | 82% | 3.7 | 3% |
| 12 | Sawbridgeworth Hertfordshire | A− | 4 | 85% | 5.4 | 0% |
| 13 | Chadwell St Mary Essex | A− | 3.2 | 97% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 14 | Whitwick Leicestershire | A− | 4.2 | 84% | 5.5 | 0% |
| 15 | Egglescliffe County Durham | A− | 4.9 | 94% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 16 | Kearsley Greater Manchester | A− | 3.4 | 91% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 17 | Uppermill Greater Manchester | A− | 2.4 | 70% | 4.8 | 27% |
| 18 | Tidworth Wiltshire | B+ | 3.7 | 90% | 2.3 | 8% |
| 19 | Pelsall West Midlands | B+ | 6.1 | 95% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 20 | Ross-on-Wye Herefordshire | B+ | 1.9 | 76% | 3.4 | 56% |
| 21 | Barnoldswick Lancashire | B+ | 1.8 | 87% | 4 | 2% |
| 22 | South Elmsall West Yorkshire | B+ | 9 | 92% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 23 | Cranleigh Surrey | B | 2.5 | 20% | 4.3 | 38% |
| 24 | Corsham Wiltshire | B | 1.9 | 81% | 3 | 31% |
| 25 | Baldock Hertfordshire | B | 2.1 | 91% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 26 | Warmsworth South Yorkshire | B | 2.7 | 79% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 27 | Great Dunmow Essex | B | 2 | 92% | 4 | 0% |
| 28 | Gillingham Dorset | B | 1.9 | 91% | 2.6 | 3% |
| 29 | Sandbach Cheshire | B− | 2.5 | 87% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 30 | Helston Cornwall | B− | 1.3 | 61% | 2.7 | 21% |
| 31 | Monmouth Gwent | B− | 1.5 | 69% | 3.1 | 45% |
| 32 | Oswaldtwistle Lancashire | B− | 1.1 | 94% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 33 | Filton Gloucestershire | B− | 3.3 | 40% | 4.8 | 0% |
| 34 | Cambourne Cambridgeshire | B− | 0.7 | 91% | 7.1 | 0% |
| 35 | Baglan West Glamorgan | C+ | 2.5 | 69% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 36 | Liskeard Cornwall | C+ | 0.8 | 89% | 2.7 | 6% |
| 37 | Bolsover Derbyshire | C+ | 1.9 | 85% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 38 | Selsey West Sussex | C | 1.6 | 79% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 39 | Earl Shilton Leicestershire | C | 1.5 | 98% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 40 | Sandy Bedfordshire | C | 0.9 | 76% | 5.4 | 0% |
| 41 | Kippax West Yorkshire | C | 1.4 | 80% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 42 | Brimington Derbyshire | C | 1.2 | 72% | 4.5 | 0% |
| 43 | Ulverston Cumbria | C | 0.7 | 60% | 1.8 | 8% |
| 44 | Towcester Northamptonshire | C | 1.3 | 77% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 45 | Prudhoe Northumberland | C− | 1.7 | 37% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 46 | Epping Essex | C− | 1.2 | 70% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 47 | Attleborough Norfolk | C− | 1.8 | 93% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 48 | Hexham Northumberland | C− | 1.5 | 64% | 2 | 9% |
| 49 | Cleveleys Lancashire | C− | 0.8 | 71% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 50 | Downham Market Norfolk | C− | 1.5 | 77% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 51 | Chatteris Cambridgeshire | C− | 1.4 | 94% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 52 | Lutterworth Leicestershire | C− | 1.7 | 83% | 2 | 0% |
| 53 | West Moors Dorset | C− | 0.9 | 33% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 54 | New Ollerton and Ollerton Nottinghamshire | C− | 0.8 | 80% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 55 | Dinnington South Yorkshire | C− | 1.1 | 81% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 56 | Leominster Herefordshire | C− | 1.1 | 72% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 57 | Newtown Powys | D | 2.3 | 65% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 58 | Sherborne Dorset | D | 1.2 | 76% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 59 | Longton Lancashire | D | 1.7 | 60% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 60 | Burton Latimer Northamptonshire | D | 0.9 | 62% | 2.8 | 0% |
The map
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Oswaldtwistle’s built-up area.
Green space: parks, gardens, playing fields and play spaces, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · Contains OS data © Crown copyright · Natural England / NRW
Places to walk
Parks to walk in, in and around Oswaldtwistle
The biggest is Rhyddings Park, 5.1 ha (13 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
All 4 named parks by size: 11 ha (26 acres) and 2 km of path
Parks & gardens 5.3 haPlaying fields 5.3 ha
The two biggest, Rhyddings Park and Bullough Park, are 98% of the named green space and carry 2 km of path between them.
Bullough Park
Playing field · 360 m outside town
5.3 ha (13 acres)0.2 km of path
7 pitchesfootball pitches would fit
1.1 mi eastfrom the centre
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Jubilee Gardens
Park or garden
0.2 ha (0 acres)0.1 km of path
Centralin the middle of Oswaldtwistle
Directionsto the nearest entrance
James Hargreaves Memorial Garden
Park or garden
0.1 ha (0 acres)
0.6 mi westfrom the centre
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Close to home
9 in 10 Oswaldtwistle 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).
Within 400 m (94%)Further (6%)
Oswaldtwistle94%
Towns its size81%
Lancashire towns85%
All UK towns83%
About 600 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 31 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 349 residents.
National Parks & National Landscapes
The Forest Of Bowland National Landscape is 4.3 mi away
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.
National ParkNational LandscapeThe 5 km the grade counts
Protected landscape begins just outside the 5 km ring the Outdoors Grade measures, so Oswaldtwistle scores 0% on it even though the Forest Of Bowland National Landscape is 4.3 mi away.
Footpaths & waymarked walks
Footpaths and waymarked walks in Oswaldtwistle
71 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Oswaldtwistle and the kilometre around it, 4.6 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0).
No named walking route is mapped within 2 km of Oswaldtwistle; its footpaths are on the map above.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
When to get out
The best walking months in Oswaldtwistle: 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) | 8.0 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.9 | 17.1 | 16.6 | 14.8 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.5 | 7.4 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 119 | 92 | 77 | 66 | 68 | 76 | 90 | 91 | 96 | 117 | 114 | 137 |
April is the driest month (66 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 137 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 37 nights a year. The climate in Oswaldtwistle →
Things to do
31 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
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.
The nearest beaches
Oswaldtwistle is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
Car Park Beach11 mi from Oswaldtwistle’s edge
DirectionsCreek Beach North11 mi from Oswaldtwistle’s edge
DirectionsCreek Beach South11 mi from Oswaldtwistle’s edge
DirectionsStone Beach11 mi from Oswaldtwistle’s edge
DirectionsWader Point11 mi from Oswaldtwistle’s edge
DirectionsGood to know
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
Picnic sites 1
Donkey Bank Picnic Site0.5 mi from town
DirectionsPlaygrounds 31
Baxenden Recreation Ground1.0 mi from town
DirectionsPlus 30 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Slipways 2
Plus 2 slipways without a name on the map.
Next door
The outdoors in nearby towns
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
ChurchAccringtonRishtonClayton-le-MoorsGreat HarwoodHuncoatOswaldtwistle
ABCDOutdoors Grade
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oswaldtwistle | B− | 1.1 | 94% | 0% |
| Church 1.3 mi | C | 1.5 | 79% | 0% |
| Accrington 1.5 mi | A− | 2.6 | 79% | 0% |
| Rishton 1.8 mi | B− | 2.2 | 94% | 0% |
| Clayton-le-Moors 2.4 mi | B | 1.1 | 86% | 2% |
| Great Harwood 3.0 mi | A | 2.2 | 97% | 4% |
| Huncoat 3.0 mi | A+ | 10.1 | 100% | 1% |
Huncoat, 3 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Accrington, Rishton and Great Harwood have at least twice Oswaldtwistle’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Oswaldtwistle
What is the biggest park in Oswaldtwistle?
Rhyddings Park, 5.1 ha (13 acres), with 2.1 km of path. Bullough Park (5.3 ha) is second. 4 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is Oswaldtwistle near a National Park?
The nearest protected landscape is the Forest Of Bowland National Landscape, 4.3 mi north of the town’s edge. It covers 806 km² and was designated in 1964.
What is the nearest beach to Oswaldtwistle?
Car Park Beach, 11 mi from the edge of the town, then Creek Beach North (11 mi). Oswaldtwistle itself is inland.
How many people in Oswaldtwistle live near a park?
94% 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 Oswaldtwistle?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Oswaldtwistle good for walking?
For paths, yes: 4.6 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 90% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 15% (1.1 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 Oswaldtwistle’s overall grade.
Sources
Where Oswaldtwistle’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.