Photo: Colin Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0Gomshall is inside the Surrey Hills National Landscape
54 km of footpaths run through the village and the kilometre around it, 4.8 for every square kilometre. A park or playing field is within a 5-minute walk for 89% of residents. Gomshall grades A for the outdoors. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
What kind of outdoors village is Gomshall?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Gomshall’s strongest suit is a protected landscape all round, followed by dense footpaths.
Gomshall grades A for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Gomshall, 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.
Gomshall is 6th of 60 UK villages its size for the outdoors
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, Gomshall stands out most for path per km²: only 3 of the other 59 have more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tatsfield Surrey | A+ | 7.5 | 100% | 3.1 | 34% |
| 2 | Winsley Wiltshire | A | 12.4 | 79% | 4.2 | 38% |
| 3 | Chilton Oxfordshire | A | 5.4 | 88% | 2.8 | 70% |
| 4 | Cromford Derbyshire | A | 1.8 | 100% | 6.6 | 12% |
| 5 | Cowfold West Sussex | A | 2.6 | 100% | 3.6 | 15% |
| 6 | Gomshall Surrey | A | 1.9 | 89% | 4.8 | 87% |
| 7 | West Horsley Surrey | A | 3 | 74% | 5.2 | 40% |
| 8 | Startforth County Durham | A | 6 | 78% | 4.3 | 4% |
| 9 | Maresfield East Sussex | A | 2.3 | 100% | 2.7 | 44% |
| 10 | Sherston Wiltshire | A | 3.7 | 100% | 1.4 | 75% |
| 11 | Sherfield on Loddon Hampshire | A− | 8.3 | 100% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 12 | Weston Rhyn Shropshire | A− | 3.6 | 100% | 2.2 | 10% |
| 13 | Distington Cumbria | A− | 4.2 | 100% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 14 | Stoke sub Hamdon Somerset | A− | 25.1 | 81% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 15 | Wharncliffe Side South Yorkshire | A− | 3.3 | 47% | 6.4 | 22% |
| 16 | Bradwell Derbyshire | A− | 1.2 | 100% | 2.9 | 100% |
| 17 | Quintrell Downs Cornwall | B+ | 3.3 | 100% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 18 | Appleton Thorn Cheshire | B+ | 5.6 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 19 | Handcross West Sussex | B | 9.6 | 58% | 1.9 | 87% |
| 20 | Barrow Lancashire | B | 0.5 | 100% | 2.8 | 27% |
| 21 | Wymeswold Leicestershire | B | 2.9 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 22 | Motcombe Dorset | B | 9.5 | 74% | 1.5 | 25% |
| 23 | Trevor Clwyd | B | 2 | 60% | 3.5 | 55% |
| 24 | Cefn Cribwr Mid Glamorgan | B | 6.5 | 100% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 25 | Sampford Peverell Devon | B− | 3 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 26 | Holymoorside Derbyshire | B− | 1.1 | 82% | 3.8 | 14% |
| 27 | Narborough Norfolk | B− | 3.8 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 28 | Kingswood Kent | B− | 3.8 | 23% | 2.7 | 11% |
| 29 | Clwt-y-bont Gwynedd | B− | 0.8 | 100% | 2.1 | 19% |
| 30 | Steeple Bumpstead Essex | B− | 1.9 | 100% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 31 | Trub Greater Manchester | C+ | 1.9 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 32 | Houghton Cambridgeshire | C+ | 2.2 | 81% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 33 | Launton Oxfordshire | C+ | 0.7 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 34 | Thorner West Yorkshire | C+ | 2.1 | 74% | 3.4 | 0% |
| 35 | Great Waldingfield Suffolk | C | 2 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 36 | East Hendred Oxfordshire | C | 1.4 | 29% | 2.8 | 47% |
| 37 | Great Bardfield Essex | C | 2 | 81% | 2.6 | 0% |
| 38 | Ringstead Northamptonshire | C | 1.8 | 100% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 39 | Tickton East Riding of Yorkshire | C | 2 | 100% | 0.7 | 0% |
| 40 | Winterley Cheshire | C | 0.9 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 41 | Chelford Cheshire | C | 1.8 | 82% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 42 | Easebourne West Sussex | C | 0.4 | 0% | 2.9 | 100% |
| 43 | Blunham Bedfordshire | C | 2.2 | 77% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 44 | Walkern Hertfordshire | C− | 2.4 | 52% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 45 | Offord D'Arcy and Offord Cluny Cambridgeshire | C− | 2.7 | 78% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 46 | Cottingham and Middleton Northamptonshire | C− | 12.1 | 53% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 47 | Penperlleni Gwent | C− | 0.6 | 80% | 1.7 | 17% |
| 48 | Newton St Loe Somerset | C− | 0 | 0% | 3.5 | 17% |
| 49 | Cowbit Lincolnshire | C− | 0.9 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 50 | Penrhyn-coch Dyfed | D | 0.7 | 100% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 51 | Hawley Kent | D | 0.7 | 24% | 2.8 | 3% |
| 52 | Perham Down Wiltshire | D | 0.8 | 42% | 2.2 | 17% |
| 53 | Butterwick Lincolnshire | D | 1.8 | 40% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 54 | Malpas Cheshire | D | 1.6 | 61% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 55 | Billingborough Lincolnshire | D | 2.4 | 45% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 56 | North Cave East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 2.5 | 47% | 1.4 | 0% |
| 57 | Skelton (York) North Yorkshire | D | 1.4 | 77% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 58 | Bomere Heath Shropshire | D− | 1.8 | 0% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 59 | Woodmansey East Riding of Yorkshire | D− | 0.7 | 0% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 60 | Griston Norfolk | D− | 0.8 | 15% | 0.5 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Gomshall’s built-up area.
9 in 10 Gomshall 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 200 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 village, about one for every 276 residents.
National Parks and National Landscapes around Gomshall
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.
Surrey Hills
87% of the land within 5 km of Gomshall is National Park or National Landscape, more than 97% of UK towns. South Downs National Park covers 1,653 km² and has been a National Park since 2010.
Gomshall is on the North Downs Way
54 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Gomshall and the kilometre around it, 4.8 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 North Downs Way, a national route, passes Gomshall. Close to home, the Shere Parish Millennium Trail has 8 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 Gomshall: 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) | 8.4 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.5 | 16.6 | 16.1 | 14.6 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 7.9 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 10 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 90 | 64 | 53 | 55 | 54 | 50 | 58 | 62 | 64 | 87 | 92 | 86 |
June is the driest month (50 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 22 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 92 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 54 nights a year. The climate in Gomshall →
4 viewpoints, 5 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
Gomshall 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
Viewpoints 4
Plus 2 viewpoints without a name on the map.
Hills and peaks 1
Nature reserves 7
Plus 3 nature reserves without a name on the map.
Playgrounds 5
Plus 5 playgrounds 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gomshall | A | 1.9 | 89% | 87% |
| West Horsley 3.2 mi | A | 3.0 | 74% | 40% |
| Westcott 3.6 mi | A | 1.8 | 86% | 78% |
| Chilworth 3.8 mi | A+ | 10.8 | 80% | 59% |
| West Clandon 3.9 mi | C | 1.9 | 49% | 28% |
| Shamley Green 4.1 mi | A | 2.9 | 100% | 69% |
| East Horsley 4.2 mi | A− | 3.5 | 55% | 33% |
Chilworth, 3.8 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: 80% of its residents live within 400 m of a park. Chilworth has at least twice Gomshall’s green space per resident.
Questions about the outdoors in Gomshall
Is Gomshall near a National Park?
Yes. South Downs National Park begins 11 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, at the edge of the village.
What are the best walks near Gomshall?
10 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the village, including the Shere Parish Millennium Trail, Abinger Roughs to Gomshall Walking Circuit, North Downs West and North Downs Way (Eastern).
What is the nearest beach to Gomshall?
Amity Beach, 13 mi from the edge of the village, then Penguin Beach (17 mi). Gomshall itself is inland.
How many people in Gomshall live near a park?
89% 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 Gomshall?
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Gomshall good for walking?
For paths, yes: 4.8 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 91% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 43% (1.9 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 Gomshall’s overall grade.
Where Gomshall’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.