Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Motacilla · CC BY-SA 4.0Parks and playing fields in Wolvercote add up to 32.0 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 100% of residents. 31 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 5.5 for every square kilometre. Wolvercote grades A 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.
Wolvercote’s strongest suit is plenty of park space, followed by dense footpaths.
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Wolvercote, 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 1,300 to 1,400 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Wolvercote stands out most for park space per resident: only 1 of the other 59 has more.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Worrall South Yorkshire | A+ | 3.7 | 100% | 5.4 | 21% |
| 2 | St Davids Dyfed | A+ | 5.2 | 84% | 2.5 | 47% |
| 3 | Pateley Bridge North Yorkshire | A+ | 2.4 | 100% | 3.4 | 100% |
| 4 | Wolvercote Oxfordshire | A | 32 | 100% | 5.5 | 0% |
| 5 | Crowmarsh Gifford Oxfordshire | A | 8 | 77% | 3.6 | 60% |
| 6 | Pwll Dyfed | A | 21.6 | 64% | 2.6 | 19% |
| 7 | Goldsithney Cornwall | A | 1.4 | 100% | 3.1 | 10% |
| 8 | Hurley Berkshire | A | 3.1 | 100% | 2.6 | 36% |
| 9 | Charmouth Dorset | A | 2.5 | 82% | 2.3 | 63% |
| 10 | Bere Regis Dorset | A | 39.2 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 11 | Brinscall Lancashire | A | 3.5 | 100% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 12 | Burbage Wiltshire | A | 2.7 | 100% | 1.9 | 100% |
| 13 | Biddenden Kent | A− | 4.2 | 100% | 1.9 | 20% |
| 14 | Compton Hampshire | A− | 18.8 | 61% | 3.6 | 28% |
| 15 | Upper Caldecote Bedfordshire | A− | 3.7 | 100% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 16 | Bradley Clwyd | A− | 29.9 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 17 | Blean Kent | A− | 5.9 | 80% | 6.5 | 0% |
| 18 | Govilon Gwent | A− | 2.1 | 80% | 3.4 | 69% |
| 19 | Sherford Devon | A− | 3.2 | 100% | 1.5 | 28% |
| 20 | Auckley South Yorkshire | B+ | 4.9 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 21 | Riseley Bedfordshire | B+ | 2.4 | 100% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 22 | Layer-de-la-Haye Essex | B+ | 9.5 | 79% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 23 | Mynydd Marian Clwyd | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 24 | Barleythorpe Rutland | B+ | 3.7 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 25 | Welland Worcestershire | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 1.9 | 38% |
| 26 | Abbots Bromley Staffordshire | B | 6.9 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 27 | Marazion Cornwall | B | 1.4 | 80% | 2 | 14% |
| 28 | Seven Sisters West Glamorgan | B | 7 | 82% | 0.5 | 19% |
| 29 | Lingdale North Yorkshire | B− | 1.4 | 100% | 1.7 | 31% |
| 30 | Burton-in-Kendal Cumbria | B− | 0.6 | 100% | 2.4 | 23% |
| 31 | Cockfield County Durham | B− | 2.3 | 81% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 32 | Burwash East Sussex | B− | 1.5 | 76% | 2.5 | 100% |
| 33 | St Merryn Cornwall | B− | 1.9 | 47% | 1.7 | 29% |
| 34 | Helmsley North Yorkshire | B− | 2.4 | 44% | 2.5 | 73% |
| 35 | Pensarn Clwyd | C+ | 13.1 | 45% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 36 | Mobberley Cheshire | C+ | 1.4 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 37 | Morton Derbyshire | C+ | 18.3 | 66% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 38 | Belford Northumberland | C+ | 1.2 | 83% | 0.9 | 21% |
| 39 | Perranarworthal Cornwall | C+ | 2.5 | 76% | 1.6 | 19% |
| 40 | Littleton Panell Wiltshire | C+ | 5.3 | 39% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 41 | Stonnall Staffordshire | C+ | 11.5 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 42 | Claverdon Warwickshire | C+ | 1.2 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 43 | Stoke Gabriel Devon | C+ | 1.2 | 70% | 1.2 | 30% |
| 44 | North Duffield North Yorkshire | C | 2.6 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 45 | Quainton Buckinghamshire | C | 3.8 | 69% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 46 | Harpole Northamptonshire | C | 2.3 | 81% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 47 | Haughley Suffolk | C | 3 | 71% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 48 | Kislingbury Northamptonshire | C | 8.4 | 26% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 49 | Moretonhampstead Devon | C | 0.6 | 81% | 1.2 | 100% |
| 50 | Winkleigh Devon | C | 1.9 | 100% | 0.2 | 0% |
| 51 | Wingham Kent | C− | 2.2 | 53% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 52 | Llandysul Dyfed | C− | 5.2 | 47% | 1 | 0% |
| 53 | Northborough Cambridgeshire | C− | 1.7 | 68% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 54 | Staindrop County Durham | D | 1.4 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 55 | Hauxton Cambridgeshire | D− | 1.3 | 55% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 56 | Brandesburton East Riding of Yorkshire | D− | 2.2 | 0% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 57 | Claypole Lincolnshire | D− | 0.7 | 0% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 58 | Kilsby Northamptonshire | D− | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 59 | Witheridge Devon | D− | 0.5 | 36% | 1 | 0% |
| 60 | Cock and End Suffolk | D− | 0 | 0% | 0.9 | 0% |
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Wolvercote’s built-up area.
The biggest is Wolvercote Common, 154 ha (381 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).
Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 16 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 83 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 Wolvercote scores 0% on it even though the Cotswolds National Landscape is 4.2 mi away.
31 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Wolvercote and the kilometre around it, 5.5 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 Thames Path, a national route, passes Wolvercote. 3 regional routes pass through, including the Shakespeare's Way, Oxford Green Belt Way and Oxford Canal Walk.
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 | 16.7 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.7 | 7.8 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 63 | 45 | 41 | 48 | 57 | 44 | 60 | 58 | 54 | 70 | 68 | 65 |
March is the driest month (41 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 October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 36 nights a year. The climate in Wolvercote →
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.
Wolvercote 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.
Plus 16 playgrounds without a name on the map.
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
Wolvercote grades higher for the outdoors than every neighbour in the table.
Wolvercote Common, 154 ha (381 acres), with 22.9 km of path. Goose Green (2.0 ha) is second. 3 named parks, gardens and playing fields are in the village or within 400 m of it.
The nearest protected landscape is the Cotswolds National Landscape, 4.2 mi north-west of the village’s edge. It covers 2,041 km² and was designated in 1966.
6 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the Shakespeare's Way, Oxford Green Belt Way and Thames Path. Wolvercote Common alone has 22.9 km of path.
The Leys Park, 8.0 mi from the edge of the village. Wolvercote itself is inland.
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%.
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: 5.5 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 96% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 100% (32.0 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 Wolvercote’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.