Photo: Ron Strutt · CC BY-SA 2.0Almost everyone in Fairlands lives within a 5-minute walk of a park
33 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 5.0 for every square kilometre. The Surrey Hills National Landscape begins 1.9 mi from the village’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Fairlands add up to 2.8 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Fairlands grades A+ for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Fairlands?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Fairlands’ strongest suit is parks close to every home, followed by dense footpaths.
Fairlands grades A+ for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Fairlands, 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.
Fairlands is 3rd of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 1,100 to 1,200 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against villages its size, Fairlands stands out most for path per km²: only 1 of the other 59 has more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corton Suffolk | A+ | 4.4 | 100% | 3 | 5% |
| 2 | Upton St Leonards Gloucestershire | A+ | 5.2 | 80% | 7.5 | 43% |
| 3 | Fairlands Surrey | A+ | 2.8 | 100% | 5 | 11% |
| 4 | Chagford Devon | A+ | 4.7 | 100% | 2.5 | 98% |
| 5 | Masham North Yorkshire | A+ | 3.7 | 100% | 3 | 44% |
| 6 | Ditchling East Sussex | A | 7.4 | 77% | 4 | 57% |
| 7 | Tolvaddon Cornwall | A | 11.9 | 24% | 4.5 | 9% |
| 8 | Leigh Kent | A | 3 | 100% | 2.6 | 49% |
| 9 | Barns Green West Sussex | A | 6.6 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 10 | Horsted Keynes West Sussex | A− | 2.2 | 100% | 2.3 | 83% |
| 11 | Wenvoe South Glamorgan | A− | 5.9 | 100% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 12 | Chatburn Lancashire | A− | 1.7 | 100% | 2.6 | 59% |
| 13 | Boosbeck North Yorkshire | A− | 2.9 | 100% | 1.9 | 22% |
| 14 | Camber East Sussex | A− | 0.9 | 100% | 2.4 | 5% |
| 15 | Grange Moor West Yorkshire | A− | 4.3 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 16 | St Erth Cornwall | B+ | 0.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 4% |
| 17 | Gotherington Gloucestershire | B+ | 2.7 | 72% | 3.7 | 33% |
| 18 | Grassington North Yorkshire | B+ | 1.3 | 79% | 4.1 | 100% |
| 19 | South Bents Tyne and Wear | B+ | 4.9 | 62% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 20 | Borth Dyfed | B | 3.1 | 74% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 21 | Oakley Buckinghamshire | B | 2.9 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 22 | Cropston Leicestershire | B | 3.1 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 23 | Jacobs Well Surrey | B | 1.4 | 77% | 4.7 | 8% |
| 24 | Goudhurst Kent | B | 1.5 | 100% | 1.2 | 65% |
| 25 | Bishop Middleham County Durham | B− | 2.6 | 100% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 26 | Shipham Somerset | B− | 1.2 | 63% | 4 | 55% |
| 27 | Plaxtol Kent | B− | 2.6 | 57% | 2.5 | 40% |
| 28 | Harpur Hill Derbyshire | B− | 3.1 | 31% | 2.3 | 60% |
| 29 | Roydon (South Norfolk) Norfolk | B− | 4.3 | 50% | 4 | 0% |
| 30 | Beaumaris Gwynedd | B− | 2.7 | 30% | 0.8 | 18% |
| 31 | Castlethorpe Buckinghamshire | C+ | 3.5 | 72% | 2.9 | 0% |
| 32 | Gainford County Durham | C+ | 2.6 | 100% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 33 | Lacey Green and Loosley Row Buckinghamshire | C+ | 2.1 | 27% | 2.4 | 82% |
| 34 | Whimple Devon | C+ | 5.2 | 70% | 0.9 | 1% |
| 35 | Brinklow Warwickshire | C+ | 1.7 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 36 | Three Legged Cross Dorset | C | 1.5 | 77% | 2.6 | 1% |
| 37 | Ashchurch Gloucestershire | C | 2 | 59% | 2.2 | 21% |
| 38 | Bow Devon | C | 1.9 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 39 | Swindon Staffordshire | C | 2.5 | 67% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 40 | Mannings Heath West Sussex | C | 1 | 71% | 1.9 | 44% |
| 41 | Baldwin's Gate Staffordshire | C− | 1.3 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 42 | North Newbald East Riding of Yorkshire | C− | 1.7 | 100% | 0.4 | 0% |
| 43 | Milverton Somerset | C− | 2.1 | 70% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 44 | Maiden Newton Dorset | C− | 1.1 | 27% | 2 | 100% |
| 45 | Wetheral Cumbria | C− | 3.8 | 51% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 46 | Crowle Worcestershire | C− | 2.4 | 34% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 47 | Beachley Gloucestershire | C− | 0.3 | 0% | 1.2 | 14% |
| 48 | Farmborough Somerset | C− | 2 | 38% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 49 | Cawston Norfolk | D | 2.7 | 71% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 50 | Chawley Oxfordshire | D | 0.3 | 0% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 51 | Wattstown Mid Glamorgan | D | 3.1 | 26% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 52 | Landrake Cornwall | D | 0.9 | 0% | 0.6 | 38% |
| 53 | Reawla Cornwall | D | 0.2 | 0% | 2 | 3% |
| 54 | Stickney Lincolnshire | D | 2.4 | 0% | 1 | 0% |
| 55 | Pilton Somerset | D− | 1.2 | 28% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 56 | Moulton Chapel Lincolnshire | D− | 1.5 | 60% | 0 | 0% |
| 57 | Kentford Suffolk | D− | 1.9 | 0% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 58 | Llanfyllin Powys | D− | 0 | 0% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 59 | Great Horwood Buckinghamshire | D− | 0.8 | 0% | 1 | 0% |
| 60 | Whaplode Lincolnshire | D− | 0.4 | 0% | 0.2 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Fairlands’ built-up area.
How close Fairlands’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).
Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 10 playgrounds are mapped in and around the village, about one for every 112 residents.
The Surrey Hills National Landscape is 1.9 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.
11% of the land within 5 km of Fairlands is National Park or National Landscape, more than 71% of UK towns. South Downs National Park covers 1,653 km² and has been a National Park since 2010.
1 waymarked walk passes through or near Fairlands
33 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Fairlands 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 The Fox Way has 5 km of local walk 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 Fairlands: 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) | 8.3 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 16.6 | 16.1 | 14.6 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 7.9 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 75 | 56 | 49 | 51 | 52 | 52 | 50 | 59 | 57 | 82 | 85 | 79 |
March is the driest month (49 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 23 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 85 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 48 nights a year. The climate in Fairlands →
10 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
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.
The nearest beaches
Fairlands 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.
Every named place, with directions
Hills and peaks 8
Plus 2 hills and peaks without a name on the map.
Nature reserves 1
Picnic sites 2
Plus 2 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 10
Plus 7 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Dog parks 1
Plus 1 dog park 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairlands | A+ | 2.8 | 100% | 11% |
| Wood Street Village 0.9 mi | A+ | 25.7 | 81% | 18% |
| Normandy 2.2 mi | B− | 3.2 | 23% | 26% |
| Guildford 2.2 mi | A | 2.8 | 86% | 31% |
| Jacobs Well 2.3 mi | B | 1.4 | 77% | 8% |
| Brookwood 3.0 mi | B+ | 8.5 | 59% | 0% |
| Pirbright 3.4 mi | B | 2.0 | 84% | 0% |
Fairlands grades higher for the outdoors than every neighbour in the table. Wood Street Village and Brookwood have at least twice Fairlands’ green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Fairlands
Is Fairlands near a National Park?
Yes. South Downs National Park begins 10 mi south-west of the village’s edge. It covers 1,653 km² and has been a National Park since 2010. The nearest protected landscape of any kind is the Surrey Hills National Landscape, 1.9 mi away.
What are the best walks near Fairlands?
1 waymarked walking route passes within 2 km of the village, including the The Fox Way.
What is the nearest beach to Fairlands?
Amity Beach, 11 mi from the edge of the village, then Penguin Beach (11 mi). Fairlands itself is inland.
How many people in Fairlands live near a park?
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%.
When is the best time of year for walking in Fairlands?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Fairlands good for walking?
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 67% (2.8 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 Fairlands’ overall grade.
Where Fairlands’ 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.