Photo: Bill Harrison · CC BY-SA 2.038% of the land within 5 km of Minsterley is National Park or National Landscape
The Shropshire Hills National Landscape begins 0.3 mi from the village’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Minsterley add up to 1.1 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. 18 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 2.4 for every square kilometre. Minsterley grades C+ for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Minsterley?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Minsterley’s strongest suit is protected countryside on the doorstep. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Minsterley grades C+ for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Minsterley, 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.
Minsterley is 37th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,600 to 1,800 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Minsterley stands out most for path per km²: only 22 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 46 of the others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wanborough Wiltshire | A+ | 6 | 100% | 2.7 | 45% |
| 2 | Trimley St Martin Suffolk | A+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2.9 | 43% |
| 3 | Penwithick Cornwall | A | 15 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 4 | Wroxall Isle of Wight | A | 1.2 | 84% | 4.6 | 33% |
| 5 | Woodbury Devon | A | 3.3 | 100% | 0.9 | 26% |
| 6 | Eccles Kent | A | 3.7 | 100% | 2.4 | 30% |
| 7 | Elstree Hertfordshire | A | 22 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 8 | Flimby Cumbria | A | 1.7 | 100% | 2.3 | 2% |
| 9 | Grain Kent | A | 13 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 10 | Southwell Dorset | A | 0.7 | 100% | 5.4 | 0% |
| 11 | Upchurch Kent | A | 4 | 76% | 2.3 | 7% |
| 12 | Wickwar Gloucestershire | A− | 2 | 100% | 3.5 | 15% |
| 13 | Hamstreet Kent | A− | 2.3 | 100% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 14 | Seascale Cumbria | A− | 2.1 | 81% | 2.2 | 27% |
| 15 | Clayhanger West Midlands | A− | 17.4 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 16 | Bathampton Somerset | A− | 1 | 85% | 5.5 | 62% |
| 17 | Ripley Surrey | A− | 15 | 64% | 3.6 | 2% |
| 18 | Harthill South Yorkshire | B+ | 3.6 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 19 | Appledore Devon | B+ | 1.2 | 100% | 1.6 | 16% |
| 20 | Criccieth Gwynedd | B | 2.9 | 75% | 1.3 | 4% |
| 21 | Blewbury Oxfordshire | B | 3.1 | 54% | 2.7 | 79% |
| 22 | Great Bentley Essex | B− | 6.4 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 23 | Bryn Dyfed | B− | 2.9 | 67% | 1.4 | 1% |
| 24 | Streethouse West Yorkshire | B− | 2.2 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 25 | Flockton West Yorkshire | B− | 2.4 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 26 | Shaldon Devon | B− | 1.7 | 85% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 27 | Woodsetts South Yorkshire | B− | 2 | 100% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 28 | Summit Greater Manchester | B− | 1.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 29 | Trethomas Gwent | B− | 6.9 | 48% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 30 | Feniton Devon | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 1.4 | 17% |
| 31 | Dunvant West Glamorgan | C+ | 4.3 | 36% | 1.8 | 30% |
| 32 | Langho Lancashire | C+ | 1.6 | 74% | 3 | 7% |
| 33 | Pilling Lancashire | C+ | 4.2 | 46% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 34 | North Leigh Oxfordshire | C+ | 2.3 | 56% | 2.4 | 26% |
| 35 | Sharnbrook Bedfordshire | C+ | 1.6 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 36 | Harvington Worcestershire | C+ | 2.6 | 100% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 37 | Minsterley Shropshire | C+ | 1.1 | 77% | 2.4 | 38% |
| 38 | Billington Lancashire | C− | 0.5 | 0% | 3.9 | 14% |
| 39 | Poyle Berkshire | C− | 0.7 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 40 | Leeming North Yorkshire | C− | 5 | 76% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 41 | West Thorney West Sussex | C− | 0.4 | 0% | 0.9 | 55% |
| 42 | Embsay North Yorkshire | C− | 0.9 | 38% | 2.5 | 47% |
| 43 | High Bentham North Yorkshire | C− | 0.1 | 0% | 2.9 | 45% |
| 44 | Lower Quinton Warwickshire | C− | 2 | 49% | 1.3 | 18% |
| 45 | Higher Kinnerton Clwyd | C− | 0.7 | 100% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 46 | Sudbrooke Lincolnshire | C− | 1.5 | 82% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 47 | Croft Leicestershire | C− | 1.4 | 84% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 48 | Charminster Dorset | D | 0.3 | 0% | 2 | 56% |
| 49 | Holt Wiltshire | D | 1.1 | 45% | 2.1 | 2% |
| 50 | Shrewton Wiltshire | D | 1.4 | 42% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 51 | Glinton Cambridgeshire | D | 1.3 | 79% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 52 | Leverington Cambridgeshire | D | 2.8 | 59% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 53 | Houghton on the Hill Leicestershire | D | 1.8 | 60% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 54 | Point Clear Essex | D | 0.1 | 0% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 55 | Soughton Clwyd | D | 0.4 | 67% | 1.3 | 3% |
| 56 | Monk Fryston and Hillam North Yorkshire | D | 2.7 | 40% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 57 | Welford-on-Avon Warwickshire | D− | 0.4 | 48% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 58 | Necton Norfolk | D− | 1.5 | 17% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 59 | Swffryd Gwent | D− | 1.4 | 17% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 60 | Hambleton North Yorkshire | D− | 0.1 | 52% | 1.1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Minsterley’s built-up area.
8 in 10 Minsterley 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 400 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Minsterley
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.
Shropshire Hills
38% of the land within 5 km of Minsterley is National Park or National Landscape, more than 87% of UK towns.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Minsterley
18 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Minsterley and the kilometre around it, 2.4 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the village.
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 Minsterley: 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) | 8.1 | 9.8 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 15.7 | 16.8 | 16.4 | 14.7 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.6 | 7.7 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 73 | 51 | 49 | 52 | 55 | 59 | 54 | 55 | 52 | 67 | 65 | 72 |
March is the driest month (49 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 21 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 73 mm of rain falls in January, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 40 nights a year. The climate in Minsterley →
2 playgrounds
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.
Every named place, with directions
Picnic sites 4
Plus 4 picnic sites 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minsterley | C+ | 1.1 | 77% | 38% |
| Pontesbury 1.5 mi | B+ | 3.1 | 63% | 28% |
| Hanwood 5.5 mi | C− | 1.9 | 19% | 3% |
| Bayston Hill 6.9 mi | C− | 1.8 | 70% | 0% |
| Church Stretton 8.6 mi | A− | 2.2 | 68% | 92% |
| Shrewsbury 9.1 mi | C+ | 1.6 | 87% | 0% |
| Welshpool 9.3 mi | C− | 2.6 | 82% | 0% |
Church Stretton, 8.6 miles away, grades A−, the best next door: 68% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. Pontesbury and Welshpool have at least twice Minsterley’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Minsterley
Is Minsterley near a National Park?
The nearest protected landscape is the Shropshire Hills National Landscape, 0.3 mi south-east of the village’s edge. It covers 808 km² and was designated in 1959.
What are the best walks near Minsterley?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the village, including the Chris Bagley Walk.
How many people in Minsterley live near a park?
77% 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 Minsterley?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Minsterley good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.4 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 42% 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 Minsterley’s overall grade.
Where Minsterley’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.