Photo: Colin Park · CC BY-SA 2.0Pilling has more park space per resident than 8 in 10 UK towns
Parks and playing fields in Pilling add up to 4.2 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. The Forest Of Bowland National Landscape begins 4.9 mi from the village’s edge. The sea makes up 23% of the area within 5 km. Pilling grades C+ for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Pilling?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Pilling’s strongest suit is plenty of park space, followed by the Forest Of Bowland National Landscape close by. Where it falls short is how far some homes are from a park.
Pilling grades C+ for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Pilling, 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.
Pilling is 37th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,600 to 1,800 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Pilling stands out most for park space per resident: only 9 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on homes near a park, where 47 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pease Pottage West Sussex | A+ | 4.1 | 100% | 7.4 | 65% |
| 2 | Manningtree Essex | A+ | 5.6 | 100% | 2.5 | 43% |
| 3 | Guston Kent | A+ | 5.8 | 100% | 2.5 | 25% |
| 4 | Trimley St Martin Suffolk | A+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2.9 | 43% |
| 5 | Penwithick Cornwall | A | 15 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 6 | Wroxall Isle of Wight | A | 1.2 | 84% | 4.6 | 33% |
| 7 | Eccles Kent | A | 3.7 | 100% | 2.4 | 30% |
| 8 | Hutton Somerset | A | 1.8 | 100% | 2.2 | 22% |
| 9 | Flimby Cumbria | A | 1.7 | 100% | 2.3 | 2% |
| 10 | Grain Kent | A | 13 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 11 | Southwell Dorset | A | 0.7 | 100% | 5.4 | 0% |
| 12 | Upchurch Kent | A | 4 | 76% | 2.3 | 7% |
| 13 | Wickwar Gloucestershire | A− | 2 | 100% | 3.5 | 15% |
| 14 | Lynemouth Northumberland | A− | 3.5 | 100% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 15 | Hemyock Devon | A− | 3.2 | 100% | 1.3 | 82% |
| 16 | Seascale Cumbria | A− | 2.1 | 81% | 2.2 | 27% |
| 17 | Clayhanger West Midlands | A− | 17.4 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 18 | Bathampton Somerset | A− | 1 | 85% | 5.5 | 62% |
| 19 | Ripley Surrey | A− | 15 | 64% | 3.6 | 2% |
| 20 | Harthill South Yorkshire | B+ | 3.6 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 21 | Appledore Devon | B+ | 1.2 | 100% | 1.6 | 16% |
| 22 | Starcross Devon | B+ | 1.9 | 100% | 0.9 | 1% |
| 23 | Aldbourne Wiltshire | B+ | 3.2 | 84% | 1.8 | 100% |
| 24 | Kingsdown Kent | B+ | 1.1 | 67% | 3.4 | 12% |
| 25 | Blewbury Oxfordshire | B | 3.1 | 54% | 2.7 | 79% |
| 26 | Silkstone South Yorkshire | B | 1 | 100% | 5.2 | 0% |
| 27 | Bryn Dyfed | B− | 2.9 | 67% | 1.4 | 1% |
| 28 | Streethouse West Yorkshire | B− | 2.2 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 29 | Shaldon Devon | B− | 1.7 | 85% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 30 | Eynsford Kent | B− | 2.1 | 81% | 1.9 | 46% |
| 31 | Woodsetts South Yorkshire | B− | 2 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 32 | Allhallows Kent | B− | 3.2 | 76% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 33 | Summit Greater Manchester | B− | 1.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 34 | Trethomas Gwent | B− | 6.9 | 48% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 35 | Feniton Devon | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 1.4 | 17% |
| 36 | Langho Lancashire | C+ | 1.6 | 74% | 3 | 7% |
| 37 | Pilling Lancashire | C+ | 4.2 | 46% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 38 | Seahouses and North Sunderland Northumberland | C+ | 1.6 | 17% | 1.7 | 21% |
| 39 | Chipperfield Hertfordshire | C+ | 2.4 | 37% | 2.8 | 17% |
| 40 | Rocester Staffordshire | C+ | 15.2 | 58% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 41 | Harvington Worcestershire | C+ | 2.6 | 100% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 42 | Minsterley Shropshire | C+ | 1.1 | 77% | 2.4 | 38% |
| 43 | Leeming North Yorkshire | C− | 5 | 76% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 44 | Embsay North Yorkshire | C− | 0.9 | 38% | 2.5 | 47% |
| 45 | High Bentham North Yorkshire | C− | 0.1 | 0% | 2.9 | 45% |
| 46 | Lower Quinton Warwickshire | C− | 2 | 49% | 1.3 | 18% |
| 47 | Modbury Devon | C− | 1.7 | 39% | 1.2 | 41% |
| 48 | Whitehill County Durham | C− | 0.3 | 0% | 7.7 | 0% |
| 49 | Holt Wiltshire | D | 1.1 | 45% | 2.1 | 2% |
| 50 | Shrewton Wiltshire | D | 1.4 | 42% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 51 | Leverington Cambridgeshire | D | 2.8 | 59% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 52 | Dobwalls Cornwall | D | 1.4 | 28% | 1.5 | 15% |
| 53 | Tiddington Warwickshire | D | 0.2 | 79% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 54 | Point Clear Essex | D | 0.1 | 0% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 55 | Soughton Clwyd | D | 0.4 | 67% | 1.3 | 3% |
| 56 | Monk Fryston and Hillam North Yorkshire | D | 2.7 | 40% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 57 | Skirlaugh East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 1 | 85% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 58 | Welford-on-Avon Warwickshire | D− | 0.4 | 48% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 59 | Swffryd Gwent | D− | 1.4 | 17% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 60 | Hambleton North Yorkshire | D− | 0.1 | 52% | 1.1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Pilling’s built-up area.
5 in 10 Pilling 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 900 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
The Forest Of Bowland National Landscape is 4.9 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.
Protected landscape begins just outside the 5 km ring the Outdoors Grade measures, so Pilling scores 0% on it even though the Forest Of Bowland National Landscape is 4.9 mi away. Lake District National Park covers 2,362 km² and has been a National Park since 1951.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Pilling
25 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Pilling 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 village.
The regional route here is the Lancashire Coastal Way.
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 Pilling: 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) | 7.9 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.9 | 17.1 | 16.6 | 14.8 | 12.6 | 10.4 | 8.4 | 7.4 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 93 | 75 | 60 | 54 | 58 | 65 | 80 | 96 | 96 | 108 | 107 | 109 |
April is the driest month (54 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 109 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 36 nights a year. The climate in Pilling →
Pilling is near the sea
23% of the area within 5 km of Pilling is sea. 1 beach is 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.
2 playgrounds
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.
Every named place, with directions
Nature reserves 1
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.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilling | C+ | 4.2 | 46% | 0% |
| Preesall and Knott End-on-Sea 2.7 mi | C− | 0.7 | 69% | 0% |
| Stalmine 2.7 mi | C | 3.1 | 67% | 0% |
| Hambleton 4.1 mi | C− | 2.3 | 14% | 0% |
| Fleetwood 5.0 mi | B+ | 2.7 | 92% | 0% |
| Thornton 5.3 mi | C | 2.1 | 71% | 0% |
| Great Eccleston 5.3 mi | D | 1.2 | 72% | 0% |
Fleetwood, 5 miles away, grades B+, the best next door: 92% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.
Questions about the outdoors in Pilling
Is Pilling near a National Park?
Yes. Lake District National Park begins 18 mi north of the village’s edge. It covers 2,362 km² and has been a National Park since 1951. The nearest protected landscape of any kind is the Forest Of Bowland National Landscape, 4.9 mi away.
What are the best walks near Pilling?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the village, including the Lancashire Coastal Way.
How many people in Pilling live near a park?
46% 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 Pilling?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Pilling good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 1.8 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 23% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 83% (4.2 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 Pilling’s overall grade.
Where Pilling’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.