Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Motacilla · CC BY-SA 3.0Parks and playing fields in Horspath add up to 14.0 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. 45 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 5.0 for every square kilometre. The North Wessex Downs National Landscape begins 6.2 mi from the village’s edge. Horspath grades B for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Horspath’s strongest suit is plenty of park space, followed by dense footpaths. Where it falls short is how far some homes are from a park.
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Horspath, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
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.
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,400 to 1,500 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Horspath stands out most for park space per resident: only 2 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on homes near a park, where 40 of the others do better.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Runton and Beeston Regis Norfolk | A+ | 25 | 100% | 4.8 | 34% |
| 2 | Sandridge Hertfordshire | A+ | 18.8 | 100% | 6.4 | 0% |
| 3 | Charlton Down Dorset | A | 4 | 100% | 2.3 | 58% |
| 4 | Newburn Tyne and Wear | A | 12.1 | 100% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 5 | Penrhyndeudraeth Gwynedd | A | 2.5 | 100% | 1 | 68% |
| 6 | Balcombe West Sussex | A | 2.9 | 100% | 2.2 | 90% |
| 7 | Three Crosses West Glamorgan | A | 2.4 | 100% | 1.3 | 39% |
| 8 | Sedbergh Cumbria | A | 1.9 | 83% | 5 | 92% |
| 9 | Heath and Reach Bedfordshire | A− | 3.3 | 100% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 10 | Llandovery Dyfed | A− | 13.3 | 100% | 1 | 22% |
| 11 | Denham Buckinghamshire | A− | 5.7 | 100% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 12 | Knowle Hampshire | A− | 2 | 100% | 3.1 | 7% |
| 13 | Twyford Hampshire | A− | 6.8 | 49% | 3.3 | 44% |
| 14 | Little Kingshill Buckinghamshire | A− | 6.5 | 50% | 2.9 | 90% |
| 15 | Holme Cumbria | A− | 2.8 | 100% | 1.8 | 25% |
| 16 | Burnhope County Durham | B+ | 3.1 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 17 | Horspath Oxfordshire | B | 14 | 54% | 5 | 0% |
| 18 | Staveley Cumbria | B | 1.7 | 85% | 2.5 | 89% |
| 19 | Hellifield North Yorkshire | B | 1.3 | 100% | 2.2 | 38% |
| 20 | Alconbury Cambridgeshire | B | 5.1 | 100% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 21 | Pont Rhyd-y-cyff Mid Glamorgan | B | 4.9 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 22 | Houghton Cumbria | B | 1.7 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 23 | Netherne on-the-Hill Surrey | B− | 1.6 | 40% | 5.9 | 19% |
| 24 | Gosfield Essex | C+ | 3.7 | 85% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 25 | Nether Stowey Somerset | C+ | 1.9 | 18% | 3 | 39% |
| 26 | Pirton Hertfordshire | C+ | 2.4 | 57% | 2.3 | 24% |
| 27 | Sutton Valence Kent | C+ | 5.6 | 71% | 1 | 1% |
| 28 | Killinghall North Yorkshire | C+ | 1 | 100% | 1.6 | 7% |
| 29 | Lavendon Buckinghamshire | C | 1.5 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 30 | Castor and Ailsworth Cambridgeshire | C | 3.4 | 41% | 3 | 0% |
| 31 | Ryhall Rutland | C | 1.9 | 100% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 32 | Connor Downs Cornwall | C | 0.5 | 79% | 0.7 | 8% |
| 33 | Newborough Cambridgeshire | C | 2.1 | 100% | 0.1 | 0% |
| 34 | Eythorne Kent | C | 0.5 | 79% | 2.5 | 9% |
| 35 | Ticehurst East Sussex | C | 1.4 | 75% | 0.8 | 100% |
| 36 | Brabourne Lees Kent | C | 0.9 | 0% | 3.2 | 34% |
| 37 | Patrington East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 3.6 | 79% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 38 | Warton Warwickshire | C− | 1.1 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 39 | Cogenhoe Northamptonshire | C− | 1.5 | 78% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 40 | Burniston North Yorkshire | C− | 0.1 | 0% | 0.9 | 49% |
| 41 | Ruishton Somerset | C− | 0.6 | 60% | 2.7 | 4% |
| 42 | Denbury Devon | C− | 2.8 | 24% | 0.7 | 3% |
| 43 | Marnhull Dorset | C− | 1.8 | 41% | 3 | 0% |
| 44 | Pontyberem Dyfed | C− | 4.7 | 58% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 45 | East Rainton Tyne and Wear | D | 1.4 | 34% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 46 | Hook East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 1.1 | 19% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 47 | North Somercotes Lincolnshire | D | 1.7 | 44% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 48 | Pontyates Dyfed | D | 4.6 | 39% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 49 | Keadby Lincolnshire | D | 1.7 | 84% | 0.6 | 0% |
| 50 | Flore Northamptonshire | D | 1.6 | 62% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 51 | Westonzoyland Somerset | D | 3.1 | 30% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 52 | Copplestone Devon | D | 1.1 | 88% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 53 | Blakedown Worcestershire | D | 0.8 | 79% | 2 | 0% |
| 54 | Gosberton Lincolnshire | D | 1.1 | 86% | 0.1 | 0% |
| 55 | Four Crosses Powys | D− | 1.9 | 53% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 56 | Badersfield Norfolk | D− | 0.3 | 53% | 1 | 2% |
| 57 | Sturton by Stow Lincolnshire | D− | 1.7 | 41% | 1 | 0% |
| 58 | Guilden Sutton Cheshire | D− | 0.3 | 56% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 59 | Shadwell West Yorkshire | D− | 0.3 | 25% | 2 | 0% |
| 60 | Woodford Northamptonshire | D− | 0 | 0% | 1.5 | 0% |
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Horspath’s built-up area.
The biggest is Shotover Country Park, 123 ha (304 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
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 700 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 15 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 98 residents.
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 Horspath scores 0% on it even though the North Wessex Downs National Landscape is 6.2 mi away.
45 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Horspath and the kilometre around it, 5.0 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
Close to home, the Boundary Patrol has 5 km of local walk within 2 km of the village. 2 regional routes pass through, including the The Roman Way and Oxford Green Belt Way.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
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) | 8.3 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 16.6 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.7 | 7.8 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 58 | 44 | 43 | 48 | 53 | 49 | 49 | 60 | 51 | 70 | 70 | 61 |
March is the driest month (43 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 70 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 42 nights a year. The climate in Horspath →
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.
Horspath 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.
Up high. Thorn Hill, at 154 m, is the highest named top within 2 km of Horspath.
Plus 15 playgrounds without a name on the map.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horspath | B | 14.0 | 54% | 0% |
| Garsington 1.2 mi | D | 0.4 | 65% | 0% |
| Wheatley 1.5 mi | D− | 0.2 | 34% | 0% |
| Oxford 2.9 mi | B+ | 2.4 | 90% | 0% |
| Kennington 3.7 mi | C+ | 2.1 | 58% | 0% |
| Radley 4.7 mi | C− | 2.1 | 36% | 0% |
| Berinsfield 5.1 mi | D | 0.1 | 0% | 11% |
Oxford, 2.9 miles away, grades B+, the best next door: 90% of its residents live within 400 m of a park.
Shotover Country Park, 123 ha (304 acres), with 34.8 km of path, just outside the built-up area. 1 named park, garden or playing field is in the village or within 400 m of it.
The nearest protected landscape is the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, 6.2 mi south of the village’s edge. It covers 1,731 km² and was designated in 1972.
5 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the The Roman Way, Oxford Green Belt Way and Boundary Patrol. Shotover Country Park alone has 34.8 km of path.
The Leys Park, 13 mi from the edge of the village. Horspath itself is inland.
54% 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%.
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
For paths, yes: 5.0 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 93% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 98% (14.0 ha per 1,000 residents).
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 Horspath’s overall grade.
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.