Photo: Andrew Abbott · CC BY-SA 2.088% of Wincanton’s residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park
The Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs National Landscape begins 1.2 mi from the town’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Wincanton add up to 1.4 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Footpaths add up to 41 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 2.8 for every square kilometre. Wincanton grades B− for the outdoors: #30 of 49 in Somerset. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors town is Wincanton?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Wincanton’s strongest suit is the Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs National Landscape close by. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Wincanton grades B− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Wincanton, 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.
Wincanton is 32nd of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 6,400 to 7,000 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Wincanton falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 49 of the 59 others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acrefair and Cefn-mawr Clwyd | A | 6.5 | 96% | 2.9 | 36% |
| 2 | Filey North Yorkshire | A | 5.9 | 89% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 3 | Bishop's Waltham Hampshire | A | 2.6 | 93% | 3.4 | 55% |
| 4 | Chalford Gloucestershire | A | 1.6 | 96% | 4.7 | 94% |
| 5 | East Boldon and West Boldon Tyne and Wear | A | 3.4 | 96% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 6 | Shotton Clwyd | A | 4.5 | 100% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 7 | Ibstock Leicestershire | A | 8.5 | 96% | 4.6 | 0% |
| 8 | Barton on Sea Hampshire | A | 4.9 | 50% | 2.8 | 22% |
| 9 | Easington County Durham | A− | 5 | 94% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 10 | Broad Blunsdon Wiltshire | A− | 5.2 | 93% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 11 | Walton-on-the-Naze Essex | A− | 3.2 | 96% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 12 | St Blazey Cornwall | A− | 2.4 | 78% | 2.8 | 17% |
| 13 | Olney Buckinghamshire | A− | 6.3 | 100% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 14 | Whitfield Kent | A− | 2.3 | 79% | 2.5 | 32% |
| 15 | Horden County Durham | A− | 2.1 | 82% | 4.8 | 0% |
| 16 | Paulton Somerset | A− | 2.1 | 96% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 17 | Shiremoor Tyne and Wear | A− | 2.5 | 76% | 5.3 | 0% |
| 18 | Whitworth Lancashire | B+ | 2.5 | 96% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 19 | Lightwater Surrey | B+ | 9.2 | 72% | 5.6 | 0% |
| 20 | Fence Houses Tyne and Wear | B+ | 3.8 | 81% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 21 | North Anston South Yorkshire | B+ | 2.6 | 100% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 22 | Cleator Moor Cumbria | B+ | 3.5 | 91% | 1.9 | 11% |
| 23 | Little Chalfont Buckinghamshire | B+ | 1.5 | 83% | 3.6 | 45% |
| 24 | Groby Leicestershire | B+ | 2.1 | 96% | 4.5 | 0% |
| 25 | Peasedown St John Somerset | B+ | 1.5 | 88% | 4 | 9% |
| 26 | Skelton (Redcar and Cleveland) North Yorkshire | B+ | 1.7 | 82% | 2.2 | 9% |
| 27 | Burley in Wharfedale West Yorkshire | B | 1.6 | 81% | 3.5 | 35% |
| 28 | Braunton Devon | B | 1.6 | 78% | 2.1 | 24% |
| 29 | Hartford Cheshire | B | 2.2 | 95% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 30 | Barrow upon Soar Leicestershire | B− | 2.7 | 89% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 31 | Rishton Lancashire | B− | 2.2 | 94% | 3 | 0% |
| 32 | Wincanton Somerset | B− | 1.4 | 88% | 2.8 | 7% |
| 33 | Crigglestone and Durkar West Yorkshire | B− | 4.4 | 45% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 34 | Blackheath West Midlands | C+ | 2.5 | 57% | 4.9 | 0% |
| 35 | Allerton Bywater West Yorkshire | C+ | 2.1 | 78% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 36 | North Baddesley Hampshire | C+ | 1.7 | 91% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 37 | Chiswell Green Hertfordshire | C+ | 4 | 54% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 38 | Denmead Hampshire | C+ | 1.4 | 72% | 2.8 | 35% |
| 39 | Chipping Norton Oxfordshire | C+ | 1.5 | 67% | 2.4 | 73% |
| 40 | Rawdon West Yorkshire | C+ | 1.7 | 67% | 5.1 | 0% |
| 41 | Bolton-le-Sands Lancashire | C+ | 1.1 | 58% | 1.6 | 23% |
| 42 | Brampton Cambridgeshire | C | 3.2 | 61% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 43 | Market Deeping Lincolnshire | C | 1.5 | 96% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 44 | Farnham Common and Farnham Royal Buckinghamshire | C | 1 | 55% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 45 | Hattersley Greater Manchester | C | 0.9 | 52% | 3.9 | 7% |
| 46 | Waddington Lincolnshire | C | 2.3 | 87% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 47 | Rhoose South Glamorgan | C | 2 | 43% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 48 | Great Wakering Essex | C | 1.1 | 47% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 49 | Market Warsop Nottinghamshire | C | 2.1 | 67% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 50 | Lydiate Merseyside | C− | 1.5 | 90% | 2 | 0% |
| 51 | Ashingdon Essex | C− | 1.3 | 61% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 52 | Hollywood Worcestershire | C− | 2.4 | 54% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 53 | Culcheth Cheshire | C− | 1.7 | 67% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 54 | Holmes Chapel Cheshire | D | 0.8 | 72% | 2 | 0% |
| 55 | Pontarddulais West Glamorgan | D | 1.9 | 67% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 56 | Coleshill Warwickshire | D | 1.3 | 69% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 57 | Broughton Clwyd | D− | 0.8 | 80% | 1 | 0% |
| 58 | Keyworth Nottinghamshire | D− | 1.3 | 58% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 59 | Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook Staffordshire | D− | 1.6 | 49% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 60 | Albrighton Shropshire | D− | 0.8 | 32% | 1 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Wincanton’s built-up area.
How close Wincanton’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).
About 800 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 5 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 1,349 residents.
The Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs National Landscape is 1.2 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.
Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs
7% of the land within 5 km of Wincanton is National Park or National Landscape, more than 69% of UK towns.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Wincanton
41 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Wincanton and the kilometre around it, 2.8 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
The regional route here is the Monarch's 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 Wincanton: May to 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) | 8.4 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 7.9 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 88 | 64 | 60 | 59 | 58 | 58 | 59 | 70 | 60 | 94 | 97 | 92 |
May is the driest month (58 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 22 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 97 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 41 nights a year. The climate in Wincanton →
5 playgrounds
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.
Every named place, with directions
Hills and peaks 1
Plus 1 peak without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 5
Plus 5 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Campsites 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wincanton | B− | 1.4 | 88% | 7% |
| Templecombe 4.0 mi | C+ | 2.0 | 100% | 0% |
| Bruton 4.2 mi | A | 9.3 | 100% | 1% |
| Castle Cary 5.2 mi | B− | 2.2 | 91% | 0% |
| Henstridge 5.7 mi | D | 1.8 | 47% | 0% |
| Gillingham 5.9 mi | B | 1.9 | 91% | 3% |
| Milborne Port 6.4 mi | C+ | 1.6 | 100% | 0% |
Bruton, 4.2 miles away, grades A, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Bruton has at least twice Wincanton’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Wincanton
Is Wincanton near a National Park?
The nearest protected landscape is the Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs National Landscape, 1.2 mi north-east of the town’s edge. It covers 986 km² and was designated in 1983.
What are the best walks near Wincanton?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the town, including the Monarch's Way.
How many people in Wincanton live near a park?
88% 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 Wincanton?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Wincanton good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.8 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 55% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 22% (1.4 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 Wincanton’s overall grade.
Where Wincanton’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.