Photo: Robert Graham · CC BY-SA 2.0Almost everyone in Acomb lives within a 5-minute walk of a park
The North Pennines National Landscape and Northumberland National Park both begin about 3 miles from the village’s edge. 14 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 2.0 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Acomb add up to 2.0 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Acomb grades B for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Acomb?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Acomb’s strongest suit is parks close to every home, followed by two protected landscapes close by.
Acomb grades B for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Acomb, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
100
100
100
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.
Acomb is 14th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,100 to 1,200 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Acomb stands out most for homes near a park: none of the other 59 has more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bathford Somerset | A+ | 4.8 | 100% | 3.7 | 64% |
| 2 | Longhoughton Northumberland | A+ | 4.7 | 100% | 1.2 | 27% |
| 3 | Halmer End and Alsagers Bank Staffordshire | A | 33.2 | 100% | 5.2 | 0% |
| 4 | Ovingham Northumberland | A | 6.5 | 100% | 4.8 | 0% |
| 5 | Dove Holes Derbyshire | A | 5.1 | 100% | 1.5 | 52% |
| 6 | Rock Cornwall | A− | 3.2 | 39% | 2.5 | 37% |
| 7 | Hampsthwaite North Yorkshire | A− | 2 | 100% | 2.6 | 23% |
| 8 | Walton Somerset | B+ | 3 | 100% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 9 | Shillingstone Dorset | B+ | 2.8 | 67% | 3.2 | 51% |
| 10 | Slinfold West Sussex | B | 2.4 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 11 | Gislingham Suffolk | B | 3.1 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 12 | High Pittington County Durham | B | 1.6 | 100% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 13 | Huntley Gloucestershire | B | 2.9 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 14 | Acomb Northumberland | B | 2 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 15 | Curdworth Warwickshire | B− | 2.9 | 100% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 16 | Thorpe End Norfolk | B− | 0.7 | 100% | 2.5 | 10% |
| 17 | Thurlton Norfolk | B− | 1.5 | 100% | 0.7 | 39% |
| 18 | Romsley Worcestershire | B− | 1.4 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 19 | Penybanc Dyfed | B− | 7.4 | 35% | 2.4 | 1% |
| 20 | Latchingdon Essex | B− | 1.7 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 21 | Grovesend West Glamorgan | C+ | 3.5 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 22 | Coddington Nottinghamshire | C+ | 2.9 | 100% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 23 | Child Okeford Dorset | C+ | 1.7 | 45% | 3.3 | 42% |
| 24 | Grampound Road Cornwall | C+ | 3.6 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 25 | Allithwaite Cumbria | C+ | 1.9 | 60% | 1 | 17% |
| 26 | Baslow Derbyshire | C+ | 1.6 | 45% | 2.8 | 98% |
| 27 | Blackmore Essex | C+ | 3.6 | 75% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 28 | Wadworth South Yorkshire | C+ | 2.7 | 100% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 29 | Dickleburgh Norfolk | C+ | 1.9 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 30 | St Cleer Cornwall | C | 3 | 29% | 1.6 | 32% |
| 31 | Hunston West Sussex | C | 1.8 | 65% | 2.4 | 17% |
| 32 | Stoke Hammond Buckinghamshire | C | 1.8 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 33 | Llanerchymedd Gwynedd | C | 4.2 | 64% | 0.6 | 4% |
| 34 | Cold Norton Essex | C | 1.3 | 100% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 35 | Hordle Hampshire | C− | 0 | 0% | 1.6 | 41% |
| 36 | North Elmham Norfolk | C− | 4.7 | 71% | 1 | 0% |
| 37 | Owston Ferry Lincolnshire | C− | 1.6 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 38 | Southfields Essex | C− | 2.8 | 0% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 39 | Old Leake Lincolnshire | C− | 3.6 | 75% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 40 | Chilworth Hampshire | C− | 1.1 | 24% | 5.4 | 0% |
| 41 | Chudleigh Knighton Devon | C− | 1 | 46% | 2.5 | 16% |
| 42 | Eastrington East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 3 | 65% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 43 | Guilsfield Powys | C− | 3.6 | 71% | 0.6 | 0% |
| 44 | Bratton Wiltshire | C− | 1.9 | 25% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 45 | Fochriw Gwent | C− | 1 | 73% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 46 | Capel Hendre Dyfed | D | 0.8 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 47 | Long Whatton Leicestershire | D | 2.8 | 63% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 48 | Ullesthorpe Leicestershire | D | 1.5 | 75% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 49 | Benwick Cambridgeshire | D | 0.3 | 100% | 0.2 | 0% |
| 50 | Orwell Cambridgeshire | D | 1.2 | 78% | 2 | 0% |
| 51 | Ramsey Island Essex | D | 1.4 | 39% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 52 | Pelynt Cornwall | D | 0 | 0% | 0.6 | 13% |
| 53 | Pant Shropshire | D | 0.3 | 0% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 54 | Outlane West Yorkshire | D | 0.5 | 0% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 55 | Great Doddington Northamptonshire | D | 1.3 | 69% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 56 | High Legh Cheshire | D− | 1.9 | 50% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 57 | Austrey Warwickshire | D− | 1.7 | 0% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 58 | Moor End Gloucestershire | D− | 0 | 0% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 59 | East Keswick West Yorkshire | D− | 0.2 | 0% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 60 | Clipsham Rutland | D− | 0 | 0% | 1.7 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Acomb’s built-up area.
How close Acomb’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).
Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 4 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 289 residents.
North Pennines and Northumberland both start about 3 miles from Acomb
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 Acomb scores 0% on it even though the North Pennines National Landscape is 3.0 mi away. Northumberland National Park covers 1,051 km² and has been a National Park since 1957.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Acomb
14 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Acomb and the kilometre around it, 2.0 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 Way of Light.
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 Acomb: 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) | 7.7 | 9.6 | 11.7 | 14.0 | 16.1 | 17.3 | 16.8 | 14.9 | 12.6 | 10.3 | 8.3 | 7.2 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 62 | 50 | 48 | 47 | 45 | 62 | 63 | 71 | 58 | 65 | 72 | 67 |
May is the driest month (45 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 20 °C). Winter days are short, about 7 hours of daylight in December, and 72 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 54 nights a year. The climate in Acomb →
4 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
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.
The nearest beaches
Acomb is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the village.
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
Playgrounds 4
Plus 2 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Campsites 1
Slipways 1
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acomb | B | 2.0 | 100% | 0% |
| Hexham 1.6 mi | C− | 1.5 | 64% | 9% |
| Corbridge 4.0 mi | C | 2.2 | 79% | 0% |
| Haydon Bridge 5.7 mi | A | 7.2 | 100% | 26% |
| Stocksfield 9.1 mi | C− | 2.2 | 40% | 0% |
| Ovingham 9.8 mi | A | 6.5 | 100% | 0% |
| Prudhoe 10.5 mi | C− | 1.7 | 37% | 0% |
Ovingham, 9.8 miles away, grades A, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Haydon Bridge and Ovingham have at least twice Acomb’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Acomb
Is Acomb near a National Park?
Yes. Northumberland National Park begins 3.1 mi north-west of the village’s edge. It covers 1,051 km² and has been a National Park since 1957. The nearest protected landscape of any kind is the North Pennines National Landscape, 3.0 mi away.
What are the best walks near Acomb?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the village, including the Way of Light.
What is the nearest beach to Acomb?
Shingle Beach, 14 mi from the edge of the village, then Shingles (14 mi). Acomb itself is inland.
How many people in Acomb live near a park?
100% 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 Acomb?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Acomb good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 2.0 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 30% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 45% (2.0 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 Acomb’s overall grade.
Where Acomb’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.