Spalding’s biggest
Festival Gardens
Park or garden
5.0 ha (12 acres)2.5 km of path
35 minto walk all 2.5 km of path
7 pitchesfootball pitches would fit
1.5 mi north-eastfrom the centre
Playground
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Photo: Richard Humphrey · CC BY-SA 2.0DOutdoors Grade
Outdoors in Spalding · parks, paths & countryside
85% of Spalding’s residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park
Parks and playing fields in Spalding add up to 1.1 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Footpaths add up to 52 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 1.5 for every square kilometre. Spalding grades D for the outdoors: #41 of 61 in Lincolnshire. 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
85%
of residents within 400 m
Typical UK town 83%
Footpaths
52 km
1.5 km per km², town + 1 km
Typical UK town 3.0 per km²
Protected landscape
0%
of the land within 5 km
Character
What kind of outdoors town is Spalding?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Historic parksAyscoughfee Hall is a registered historic park (Grade II).Less park per person1.1 ha of parks and playing fields per 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1.
Spalding’s strongest suit is its historic parks. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Outdoors grade
Spalding grades D for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Spalding, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
D
Better than 12% of UK towns#41 of 61 in Lincolnshire
Public green space1.1 haper 1,000 residents: parks, gardens, playing fields, play spaces
15out of
100
100
A park within a walk85%of residents within 400 m (a 5-minute walk)
57out of
100
100
National Park or National Landscape0%of the land within 5 km · None within 5 km
31out of
100
100
Footpaths1.5 kmper km², the town and 1 km around it
18out 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
How Spalding compares with UK towns of 28,000 to 33,300
The 60 UK towns and cities of 28,000 to 33,300 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
Spalding1.5
Towns its size3.6
Lincolnshire towns1.3
All UK towns3.0
Green space, ha per 1,000 residents
Spalding1.1
Towns its size2.2
Lincolnshire towns1.6
All UK towns2.1
Residents within 400 m of a park
Spalding85%
Towns its size84%
Lincolnshire towns71%
All UK towns83%
Spalding falls furthest behind on path per km², where 57 of the 59 others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Malvern Worcestershire | A+ | 3.9 | 90% | 6 | 38% |
| 2 | Yate Gloucestershire | A+ | 4.3 | 99% | 6.8 | 11% |
| 3 | Jarrow Tyne and Wear | A+ | 5.3 | 90% | 6.1 | 0% |
| 4 | Northfleet Kent | A | 2 | 85% | 7.7 | 4% |
| 5 | Ashington Northumberland | A | 5.6 | 83% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 6 | Penarth South Glamorgan | A | 3.5 | 83% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 7 | Witney Oxfordshire | A | 2.5 | 88% | 4.6 | 19% |
| 8 | Woodley Berkshire | A | 5 | 81% | 4.3 | 1% |
| 9 | Prestwich Greater Manchester | A | 9 | 94% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 10 | Totton Hampshire | A | 1.6 | 94% | 4.4 | 50% |
| 11 | Redhill Surrey | A− | 2.2 | 91% | 4.3 | 14% |
| 12 | Chandler's Ford Hampshire | A− | 2.7 | 80% | 5.3 | 6% |
| 13 | Stretford Greater Manchester | A− | 3.7 | 92% | 4.9 | 0% |
| 14 | Caversham Berkshire | A− | 2.5 | 77% | 4.3 | 32% |
| 15 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | A− | 1.7 | 73% | 3.2 | 18% |
| 16 | St Neots Cambridgeshire | A− | 3.5 | 91% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 17 | Cleethorpes Lincolnshire | A− | 3 | 84% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 18 | Eston North Yorkshire | B+ | 2.9 | 93% | 2.8 | 2% |
| 19 | Harpenden Hertfordshire | B+ | 3.5 | 84% | 2.9 | 2% |
| 20 | Cramlington Northumberland | B+ | 2.3 | 91% | 6.6 | 0% |
| 21 | Deal Kent | B+ | 1 | 86% | 2.7 | 6% |
| 22 | Farnworth Greater Manchester | B+ | 3 | 85% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 23 | Chichester West Sussex | B+ | 1.6 | 89% | 3 | 40% |
| 24 | Lichfield Staffordshire | B+ | 2.7 | 82% | 3.1 | 2% |
| 25 | Pontypool Gwent | B+ | 3.6 | 93% | 1.8 | 7% |
| 26 | Brierley Hill West Midlands | B+ | 3.1 | 82% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 27 | Colwyn Bay Clwyd | B+ | 1.9 | 77% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 28 | Windsor Berkshire | B | 5.5 | 83% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 29 | Shipley West Yorkshire | B | 2.1 | 87% | 6 | 0% |
| 30 | Consett County Durham | B | 1.7 | 87% | 3.1 | 19% |
| 31 | Brighouse West Yorkshire | B | 2.5 | 91% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 32 | Abingdon-on-Thames Oxfordshire | B | 2.1 | 91% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 33 | Bushey Hertfordshire | B | 3.1 | 77% | 4 | 0% |
| 34 | Caerphilly Gwent | B | 2.6 | 82% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 35 | Morecambe Lancashire | B− | 0.8 | 84% | 2.2 | 2% |
| 36 | Evesham Worcestershire | B− | 1.7 | 80% | 3.5 | 4% |
| 37 | Radcliffe Greater Manchester | B− | 1.7 | 86% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 38 | Stanford-le-Hope Essex | B− | 2.6 | 84% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 39 | Whitstable Kent | B− | 1.5 | 84% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 40 | Kendal Cumbria | C+ | 0.9 | 67% | 4 | 33% |
| 41 | Winsford Cheshire | C+ | 1.3 | 92% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 42 | Pontefract West Yorkshire | C+ | 2.6 | 84% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 43 | New Haw, West Byfleet and Sheerwater Surrey | C+ | 2.2 | 69% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 44 | Newton Abbot Devon | C+ | 2.6 | 62% | 2.3 | 6% |
| 45 | Morley West Yorkshire | C+ | 1.2 | 87% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 46 | Stratford-upon-Avon Warwickshire | C | 1.6 | 84% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 47 | Newark-on-Trent Nottinghamshire | C | 2.2 | 91% | 2 | 0% |
| 48 | Bedworth Warwickshire | C | 1.5 | 87% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 49 | Barnstaple Devon | C | 1.6 | 92% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 50 | Rayleigh Essex | C | 2 | 71% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 51 | Beverley East Riding of Yorkshire | C | 0.7 | 92% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 52 | Sedgley West Midlands | C | 1.5 | 65% | 4 | 0% |
| 53 | Congleton Cheshire | C | 1.7 | 72% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 54 | Hertford Hertfordshire | C | 0.9 | 65% | 5.3 | 0% |
| 55 | Rushden Northamptonshire | C− | 1.5 | 84% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 56 | Heywood Greater Manchester | C− | 1.3 | 80% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 57 | Heswall Merseyside | C− | 1.1 | 56% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 58 | Port Talbot West Glamorgan | C− | 1.3 | 68% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 59 | Spalding Lincolnshire | D | 1.1 | 85% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 60 | Pontypridd Mid Glamorgan | D | 1.5 | 70% | 1.9 | 0% |
The map
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Spalding’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 Spalding
The biggest is Festival Gardens, 5.0 ha (12 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
All 4 named parks by size: 16 ha (41 acres) and 4 km of path
Parks & gardens 7.2 haPlaying fields 9.2 ha
The two biggest, Festival Gardens and Ayscoughfee Gardens, are 44% of the named green space and carry 4 km of path between them.
Historic park · Grade II
Ayscoughfee Gardens
Park or garden
2.2 ha (5 acres)1.3 km of path
15 minto walk all 1.3 km of path
3 pitchesfootball pitches would fit
Centralin the middle of Spalding
Playground Ayscoughfee Hall Grade I Spalding War Memorial Grade I +2 listed
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Memorial Field
Playing field
7.5 ha (18 acres)
10 pitchesfootball pitches would fit
Centralin the middle of Spalding
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field
Playing field
1.8 ha (4 acres)
2 pitchesfootball pitches would fit
Centralin the middle of Spalding
Directionsto the nearest entrance
Close to home
How close Spalding’s homes are to 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 (85%)Further (15%)
Spalding85%
Towns its size84%
Lincolnshire towns71%
All UK towns83%
About 4,000 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 32 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 955 residents.
Footpaths & waymarked walks
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Spalding
52 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Spalding and the kilometre around it, 1.5 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
Regional
Macmillan Way0.4 km
The regional route here is the Macmillan Way.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
History along the way
A historic park in the middle of Spalding
Historic England’s register of parks and gardens, and the listed buildings and scheduled monuments that stand inside Spalding’s named parks.
Registered park · Grade II
Ayscoughfee Gardens
2.2 ha. Part of Ayscoughfee Hall, a registered historic park (Grade II). 4 listed structures and monuments stand inside it or at its edge, including Ayscoughfee Hall (Grade I).
IAyscoughfee HallISpalding War MemorialIIGarden Wall to Ayscoughfee Hall Along the Road to the South West of the House and at Right Angles to It
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.
When to get out
The best walking months in Spalding: 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) | 8.1 | 9.8 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.8 | 16.9 | 16.4 | 14.7 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.6 | 7.6 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 23 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 46 | 36 | 35 | 42 | 47 | 56 | 60 | 61 | 48 | 59 | 53 | 51 |
March is the driest month (35 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 61 mm of rain falls in August, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 43 nights a year. The climate in Spalding →
Things to do
32 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
Spalding is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
Snettisham Scalp24 mi from Spalding’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
Nature reserves 1
Vernatts Drain Nature Reserve3.5 ha · in town
DirectionsPicnic sites 2
Plus 2 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 32
Ayscoughfee Gardensin town
DirectionsBalmoral Avenue Playing Fieldin town
DirectionsChildren's Play Areain town
DirectionsJCB Young Drivers Zonein town
DirectionsPark Close Playgroundin town
DirectionsPlus 27 playgrounds 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.
PinchbeckCowbitMoultonSurfleetMoulton ChapelDeeping St NicholasSpalding
ABCDOutdoors Grade
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spalding | D | 1.1 | 85% | 0% |
| Pinchbeck 2.0 mi | D− | 1.0 | 49% | 0% |
| Cowbit 3.2 mi | C− | 0.9 | 100% | 0% |
| Moulton 3.9 mi | D | 1.9 | 75% | 0% |
| Surfleet 4.1 mi | C− | 4.2 | 0% | 0% |
| Moulton Chapel 4.1 mi | D− | 1.5 | 60% | 0% |
| Deeping St Nicholas 4.8 mi | D− | 0.7 | 80% | 0% |
Cowbit, 3.2 miles away, grades C−, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Surfleet has at least twice Spalding’s green space per resident. None of the neighbours has a protected landscape within 5 km either.
Questions about the outdoors in Spalding
What is the biggest park in Spalding?
Festival Gardens, 5.0 ha (12 acres), with 2.5 km of path. Ayscoughfee Gardens (2.2 ha) is second. 4 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the town or within 400 m of it.
Is Spalding near a National Park?
No National Park or National Landscape is within 30 km (about 19 miles) of Spalding.
What are the best walks near Spalding?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the town, including the Macmillan Way. Festival Gardens alone has 2.5 km of path.
What is the nearest beach to Spalding?
Snettisham Scalp, 24 mi from the edge of the town. Spalding itself is inland.
How many people in Spalding live near a park?
85% 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 Spalding?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Which parks in Spalding are historic?
Ayscoughfee Hall (Grade II) is on Historic England’s register of parks and gardens.
Is Spalding good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 1.5 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 18% 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 Spalding’s overall grade.
Sources
Where Spalding’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.