Photo: Geographer · CC BY-SA 2.0Rendlesham is inside the Suffolk Coast & Heaths National Landscape
Parks and playing fields in Rendlesham add up to 0.8 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 52% of residents. Rendlesham grades C− for the outdoors: #30 of 34 in Suffolk. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors town is Rendlesham?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Rendlesham’s strongest suit is a protected landscape all round. Where it falls short is park space per person.
Rendlesham grades C− for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Rendlesham, 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.
Rendlesham is 51st of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 3,000 to 3,300 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Rendlesham falls furthest behind on park space per resident, where 53 of the 59 others do better.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whyteleafe Surrey | A+ | 16.3 | 100% | 4.9 | 15% |
| 2 | Bakewell Derbyshire | A | 5.5 | 91% | 2.7 | 98% |
| 3 | Bignall End Staffordshire | A | 9.1 | 100% | 4.1 | 0% |
| 4 | Moira Leicestershire | A | 15.5 | 86% | 5.1 | 0% |
| 5 | Tywyn Gwynedd | A− | 2.4 | 79% | 1.9 | 51% |
| 6 | Gamesley Derbyshire | A− | 0.8 | 100% | 5 | 32% |
| 7 | Neyland Dyfed | A− | 3 | 93% | 1.2 | 13% |
| 8 | Netherton (Kirklees) West Yorkshire | A− | 2 | 88% | 5.5 | 6% |
| 9 | Oughtibridge South Yorkshire | A− | 2.2 | 76% | 6 | 19% |
| 10 | Bream Gloucestershire | A− | 2.2 | 82% | 4.7 | 10% |
| 11 | Wootton Isle of Wight | B+ | 3.7 | 67% | 1.7 | 20% |
| 12 | North Petherton Somerset | B+ | 3.8 | 91% | 2.3 | 5% |
| 13 | Amlwch Gwynedd | B+ | 1.6 | 87% | 2.1 | 14% |
| 14 | Addingham West Yorkshire | B+ | 1.8 | 93% | 3 | 32% |
| 15 | Porthleven Cornwall | B+ | 1.6 | 78% | 2.5 | 19% |
| 16 | Drayton Oxfordshire | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 3 | 3% |
| 17 | Markyate Hertfordshire | B+ | 1.4 | 100% | 2.2 | 53% |
| 18 | St Agnes Cornwall | B+ | 1 | 81% | 3 | 5% |
| 19 | Wheatley Hill County Durham | B+ | 2.6 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 20 | Honeybourne Worcestershire | B | 2.9 | 80% | 2.6 | 14% |
| 21 | Walton West Yorkshire | B | 12.3 | 78% | 3 | 0% |
| 22 | Treeton South Yorkshire | B | 4.4 | 63% | 5.3 | 0% |
| 23 | Upper Beeding West Sussex | B | 0.6 | 83% | 3.9 | 62% |
| 24 | Fleur-de-lis and Pengam Gwent | B | 6 | 54% | 4.9 | 0% |
| 25 | Ringmer East Sussex | B− | 1.9 | 91% | 1.8 | 37% |
| 26 | Newbold Verdon Leicestershire | B− | 2.3 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 27 | Pangbourne Berkshire | B− | 2.9 | 61% | 2 | 85% |
| 28 | Askam in Furness Cumbria | B− | 1.7 | 90% | 2 | 0% |
| 29 | Dunton Green Kent | B− | 1 | 82% | 2.7 | 69% |
| 30 | Healing Lincolnshire | B− | 2 | 78% | 1.3 | 1% |
| 31 | Lambourn Berkshire | C+ | 1.2 | 61% | 3 | 100% |
| 32 | Milborne Port Somerset | C+ | 1.6 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 33 | Dymchurch Kent | C+ | 1.6 | 58% | 1 | 13% |
| 34 | Thaxted Essex | C | 0.8 | 91% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 35 | West Bergholt Essex | C | 1.5 | 82% | 1.8 | 9% |
| 36 | Swanmore Hampshire | C | 1.4 | 69% | 1.9 | 54% |
| 37 | West Chiltington West Sussex | C | 1.5 | 18% | 2.7 | 38% |
| 38 | Teynham Kent | C | 0.8 | 55% | 1.8 | 13% |
| 39 | Ogmore Vale Mid Glamorgan | C | 4.3 | 79% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 40 | Cullingworth West Yorkshire | C− | 1.1 | 72% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 41 | Hadlow Kent | C− | 1.7 | 61% | 2 | 11% |
| 42 | Charvil Berkshire | C− | 0.7 | 68% | 2.7 | 6% |
| 43 | Sapcote Leicestershire | C− | 2.4 | 67% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 44 | Claydon Suffolk | C− | 2.8 | 72% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 45 | Appleby-in-Westmorland Cumbria | C− | 1.2 | 63% | 2.1 | 24% |
| 46 | Yarnton Oxfordshire | C− | 0.4 | 69% | 3 | 0% |
| 47 | Farnsfield Nottinghamshire | C− | 2 | 63% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 48 | West Auckland County Durham | C− | 1.1 | 91% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 49 | Purton Wiltshire | C− | 0.8 | 60% | 4.3 | 0% |
| 50 | South Petherton Somerset | C− | 1.1 | 61% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 51 | Rendlesham Suffolk | C− | 0.8 | 52% | 1.6 | 59% |
| 52 | Astwood Bank Worcestershire | C− | 0.9 | 79% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 53 | Navenby Lincolnshire | D | 1.2 | 81% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 54 | Tarporley Cheshire | D | 1 | 69% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 55 | Iver Buckinghamshire | D | 1.3 | 60% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 56 | Skellingthorpe Lincolnshire | D | 1.2 | 69% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 57 | Eccleshall Staffordshire | D | 1.1 | 74% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 58 | Dunnington North Yorkshire | D− | 0.8 | 44% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 59 | Upper Tean Staffordshire | D− | 0.6 | 60% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 60 | Donington Lincolnshire | D− | 0.8 | 54% | 0.8 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Rendlesham’s built-up area.
5 in 10 Rendlesham 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 1,500 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 9 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 354 residents.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Rendlesham
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.
Suffolk Coast & Heaths
59% of the land within 5 km of Rendlesham is National Park or National Landscape, more than 94% of UK towns.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Rendlesham
31 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Rendlesham and the kilometre around it, 1.6 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 Sandlings Walk.
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 Rendlesham: 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) | 8.2 | 9.8 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.7 | 16.7 | 16.3 | 14.6 | 12.6 | 10.5 | 8.7 | 7.7 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 23 | 20 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 52 | 45 | 41 | 36 | 47 | 52 | 53 | 57 | 51 | 65 | 63 | 62 |
April is the driest month (36 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 65 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 34 nights a year. The climate in Rendlesham →
9 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
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.
The nearest beaches
Rendlesham is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
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 9
Plus 9 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Campsites 1
Plus 1 campsite 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rendlesham | C− | 0.8 | 52% | 59% |
| Wickham Market 2.8 mi | C | 2.5 | 64% | 7% |
| Sutton Common 3.4 mi | C+ | 0.8 | 51% | 85% |
| Melton 4.0 mi | A+ | 6.5 | 100% | 33% |
| Woodbridge 5.0 mi | B+ | 1.7 | 80% | 30% |
| Saxmundham 6.8 mi | B+ | 3.3 | 100% | 3% |
| Martlesham 7.0 mi | B | 2.1 | 69% | 24% |
Melton, 4 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park. Wickham Market, Melton and Woodbridge have at least twice Rendlesham’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Rendlesham
What are the best walks near Rendlesham?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the town, including the Sandlings Walk.
What is the nearest beach to Rendlesham?
Honolulu Beach, 3.5 mi from the edge of the town, then Trimley Shores (10 mi). Rendlesham itself is inland.
How many people in Rendlesham live near a park?
52% 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 Rendlesham?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Rendlesham good for walking?
Paths are thinner than most towns: 1.6 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 20% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 8% (0.8 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 Rendlesham’s overall grade.
Where Rendlesham’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.