More than 400 Country Parks exist. They are public green spaces often at the edge of urban areas which provide places to enjoy the outdoors and experience nature in an informal semi-rural park setting. Country Parks normally have some facilities such as a car park, toilets, perhaps a cafe or kiosk, paths and trails, and visitor information.
There is not necessarily a public right of access, although most are publicly accessible; some charge entry others do not. Most are owned and managed by Local Authorities.
Many Country Parks were designated in the 1970s by the then Countryside Commission, under the Countryside Act 1968. More recently Country Parks have been created under a less formal arrangement and Natural England is working with partners to encourage a renaissance and accreditation of parks which meet certain criteria.
The dataset contains boundaries of each Country Park, digitised against Ordnance Survey MasterMap using source maps supplied by Local Authorities.Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.