Cardinal's Hat Inn · Photo: Adrian S Pye · CC BY-SA 2.0Parks and walks in Harleston
The Broads National Park begins 5.3 mi from the town’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Harleston add up to 0.2 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 42% of residents. Harleston grades D− for the outdoors: #49 of 51 in Norfolk. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors town is Harleston?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Harleston’s strongest suit is the Broads National Park close by. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Harleston grades D− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Harleston, 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.
How Harleston compares with UK towns of 4,900 to 5,300
The 60 UK towns and cities of 4,900 to 5,300 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Harleston falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 59 of the 59 others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cookham Berkshire | A+ | 8.3 | 96% | 4.3 | 19% |
| 2 | Pill Somerset | A+ | 5.2 | 100% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 3 | Weston Dorset | A+ | 2.5 | 95% | 7.6 | 0% |
| 4 | Whitehill Hampshire | A+ | 10.2 | 74% | 5.1 | 58% |
| 5 | Hungerford Berkshire | A+ | 9.1 | 85% | 3.2 | 100% |
| 6 | Burry Port Dyfed | A+ | 11.8 | 75% | 2.8 | 17% |
| 7 | Moreton-in-Marsh Gloucestershire | A | 5 | 100% | 1.8 | 55% |
| 8 | Rhymney Gwent | A | 2.9 | 97% | 3.8 | 6% |
| 9 | Meols Merseyside | A | 3.1 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 10 | Holmfirth West Yorkshire | A | 2.2 | 88% | 4.6 | 27% |
| 11 | Fitzwilliam and Kinsley West Yorkshire | A− | 11.5 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 12 | Fordingbridge Hampshire | A− | 3.6 | 92% | 2 | 56% |
| 13 | Coleford Gloucestershire | A− | 2.8 | 66% | 4.3 | 48% |
| 14 | Needham Market Suffolk | A− | 7.2 | 88% | 4 | 0% |
| 15 | Overseal and Castle Gresley Derbyshire | A− | 2.5 | 100% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 16 | Northam Devon | A− | 6.8 | 43% | 2 | 16% |
| 17 | Huthwaite Nottinghamshire | B+ | 8.1 | 75% | 4.9 | 0% |
| 18 | Seaton Cumbria | B+ | 2.5 | 87% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 19 | Cranbrook Devon | B+ | 6.4 | 87% | 1.9 | 1% |
| 20 | Hildenborough Kent | B+ | 6.5 | 40% | 2.8 | 46% |
| 21 | Long Ashton Somerset | B+ | 10.2 | 66% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 22 | Stone Cross East Sussex | B+ | 1.4 | 86% | 2.3 | 9% |
| 23 | Aspull Greater Manchester | B | 7.6 | 92% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 24 | Easingwold North Yorkshire | B | 4.3 | 86% | 1.5 | 14% |
| 25 | Grimethorpe South Yorkshire | B | 2.5 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 26 | Market Rasen Lincolnshire | B | 2.6 | 94% | 1.6 | 16% |
| 27 | Sedgefield County Durham | B | 6.2 | 81% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 28 | Redbourn Hertfordshire | B | 2.4 | 70% | 3.2 | 11% |
| 29 | Iver Heath Buckinghamshire | B | 28.9 | 53% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 30 | Headley Down and Headley Hampshire | B | 2.1 | 55% | 3.4 | 44% |
| 31 | Virginia Water Surrey | B | 14.5 | 72% | 3 | 0% |
| 32 | Abercarn Gwent | B− | 3 | 100% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 33 | Whitburn Tyne and Wear | B− | 2.5 | 46% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 34 | Wotton-under-Edge Gloucestershire | C+ | 0.4 | 32% | 5.4 | 60% |
| 35 | Wool Dorset | C+ | 2.3 | 51% | 2.5 | 33% |
| 36 | Sacriston County Durham | C+ | 2.1 | 72% | 4 | 0% |
| 37 | Steeton West Yorkshire | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 38 | Moulton Northamptonshire | C+ | 3.3 | 88% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 39 | Barton-le-Clay Bedfordshire | C+ | 1.3 | 43% | 3.2 | 38% |
| 40 | Church Lancashire | C | 1.5 | 79% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 41 | Billinge Merseyside | C | 0.9 | 94% | 3 | 0% |
| 42 | Treharris Mid Glamorgan | C | 2.6 | 72% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 43 | Bungay Suffolk | C | 0.5 | 78% | 2.6 | 12% |
| 44 | Sutton on Sea and Trusthorpe Lincolnshire | C | 1.8 | 67% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 45 | Havercroft and Ryhill West Yorkshire | C | 1.6 | 81% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 46 | Odiham Hampshire | C | 1.9 | 72% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 47 | Long Stratton Norfolk | C− | 1 | 89% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 48 | Jaywick Essex | C− | 1.1 | 75% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 49 | Bayston Hill Shropshire | C− | 1.8 | 70% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 50 | Shavington Cheshire | C− | 1.1 | 87% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 51 | Potton Bedfordshire | D | 1.3 | 77% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 52 | Haslington Cheshire | D | 1.8 | 41% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 53 | Gresford Clwyd | D | 1.4 | 76% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 54 | Moorends South Yorkshire | D | 2.2 | 39% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 55 | Lepton West Yorkshire | D− | 0.9 | 36% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 56 | Wingate County Durham | D− | 1 | 64% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 57 | Harleston Norfolk | D− | 0.2 | 42% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 58 | Appley Bridge Greater Manchester | D− | 0.5 | 44% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 59 | Shotton Colliery County Durham | D− | 0.9 | 40% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 60 | Somerton Somerset | D− | 0.6 | 48% | 1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Harleston’s built-up area.
4 in 10 Harleston 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 2,900 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 7 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 725 residents.
The Broads National Park is 5.3 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.
Protected landscape begins just outside the 5 km ring the Outdoors Grade measures, so Harleston scores 0% on it even though the Broads National Park is 5.3 mi away. The Broads National Park covers 302 km² and has been a National Park since 1989.
3 waymarked walks pass through or near Harleston
23 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Harleston and the kilometre around it, 2.2 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 Waveney Valley Walks - Harleston has 9 km of local walk within 2 km of the town. The regional route here is the Angles 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 Harleston: May to July and 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) | 8.2 | 9.8 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.7 | 16.8 | 16.3 | 14.7 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.6 | 7.7 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 23 | 19 | 15 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 51 | 44 | 45 | 35 | 47 | 50 | 64 | 68 | 55 | 64 | 65 | 60 |
April is the driest month (35 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 68 mm of rain falls in August, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 42 nights a year. The climate in Harleston →
7 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
Harleston 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.
Every named place, with directions
Picnic sites 1
Plus 1 picnic site without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 7
Plus 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harleston | D− | 0.2 | 42% | 0% |
| Dickleburgh 4.8 mi | C+ | 1.9 | 100% | 0% |
| Stradbroke 5.9 mi | B− | 3.0 | 100% | 0% |
| Scole 6.5 mi | C− | 2.1 | 51% | 0% |
| Long Stratton 6.7 mi | C− | 1.0 | 89% | 0% |
| Bungay 7.0 mi | C | 0.5 | 78% | 12% |
| Laxfield 7.4 mi | B− | 3.3 | 100% | 0% |
Laxfield, 7.4 miles away, grades B−, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Dickleburgh, Stradbroke and Scole have at least twice Harleston’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Harleston
Is Harleston near a National Park?
Yes. the Broads National Park begins 5.3 mi north-east of the town’s edge. It covers 302 km² and has been a National Park since 1989.
What are the best walks near Harleston?
3 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Waveney Valley Walks - Harleston, Angles Way and Otter Vale Walks.
What is the nearest beach to Harleston?
Gunton Sands, 20 mi from the edge of the town, then Corton Sands (20 mi). Harleston itself is inland.
How many people in Harleston live near a park?
42% 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 Harleston?
May to July and September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Harleston good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 2.2 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 36% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 2% (0.2 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 Harleston’s overall grade.
Where Harleston’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.