How Glade Works

Glade is an independent project built from frustration: the UK has extraordinary wild and semi-wild spaces — ancient woodland, reservoir trails, local nature reserves — that simply don't appear on consumer maps. We fix that.

Every location boundary, trail, and facility on Glade comes from free, openly licensed public datasets. This page lists every source we use and the licence conditions that apply.

How it works

Step 1

Boundaries

We ingest polygon boundaries from the National Forest Inventory, OS Open Greenspace, Natural England, and OpenStreetMap to define each location.

Step 2

Trails & facilities

Forestry England trails are linked spatially. Facilities (car parks, toilets, cafes) are derived from OpenStreetMap point-of-interest data within proximity thresholds.

Step 3

Photos

Cover images are sourced from Geograph and Wikimedia Commons. Attribution is shown on each location page as required by the licence.

OpenStreetMap notice: This site contains information from OpenStreetMap, which is made available under the Open Database Licence. Our use of OpenStreetMap data is subject to the ODbL. Any derived database produced from OpenStreetMap data must also be made available under the ODbL.

Open Government Licence sources

Under the Open Government Licence you are free to copy, publish, distribute, transmit, and adapt this information for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, provided you acknowledge the source.

National Forest Inventory (NFI)

Forestry Commission

Woodland polygon boundaries and species composition data for Great Britain.

Contains Forestry Commission information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Forestry England — Trails & Recreation

Forestry England

Walking, cycling, horse-riding, and mountain biking trails at Forestry England managed sites across England.

Contains Forestry Commission information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Forestry England — Dams

Forestry England

Dam and reservoir locations within the Forestry England estate, including safety classification and reservoir area.

Contains Forestry Commission information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

OS Open Names

Ordnance Survey

Place names and named landscape features used to enrich woodland and site names.

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right

OS Open Greenspace

Ordnance Survey

Public parks, nature reserves, country parks, and other publicly accessible green spaces.

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right

Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI)

Natural England

Boundaries of ancient woodland sites in England — woodland that has existed continuously since at least 1600 AD.

Contains Natural England data © Crown copyright and database right

Open Access Land (CRoW Act 2000)

Natural England

Land with public right of access on foot under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.

Contains Natural England data © Crown copyright and database right

Local Nature Reserves (LNR)

Natural England

Boundaries and names of Local Nature Reserves designated by local authorities in England.

Contains Natural England data © Crown copyright and database right

Country Parks

Natural England

Country parks designated under the Countryside Act 1968.

Contains Natural England data © Crown copyright and database right

Historic England — Scheduled Monuments

Historic England

Nationally protected archaeological sites and monuments across England from the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Historic England data © Historic England. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right.

Historic England — Registered Parks & Gardens

Historic England

Grade I, II*, and II designated historic designed landscapes across England from the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Other licences

OpenStreetMap

Open Database Licence (ODbL) 1.0

Car parks, toilets, cafes, playgrounds, picnic areas, campsites, viewpoints, footpaths, bridleways, reservoir boundaries, wetlands, heathland, nature reserve polygons, and historic features (castles, ruins, abbeys, forts, battlefields, etc.).

OpenActive

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

Upcoming bookable outdoor activity sessions published by operators through the OpenActive open data initiative. Session times, venues, prices, and booking links are sourced directly from operator-provided RPDE feeds. Operator coverage will expand as feeds are validated.

Bookable session data published by operators under the OpenActive programme

Geograph

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photographs of woodland and landscape locations. Attribution is shown per image on location pages.

Wikimedia Commons

Various Creative Commons licences (CC BY / CC BY-SA / CC0)

Photographs of woodland and landscape locations. Attribution and licence are shown per image on location pages.

Access & accuracy

Public access information is derived from open datasets and OpenStreetMap tags. Access conditions can change — closures, seasonal restrictions, and land management decisions are not always reflected in open data promptly. Always check with the land manager before visiting, particularly for reservoirs and sites marked as unverified.

If you notice incorrect information on a location page, you can help by editing OpenStreetMap directly — improvements feed back into Glade during our next data refresh.

Contact

Glade is an independent project. For data licensing queries or takedown requests, please open an issue on our GitHub repository.

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