A new study undertaken by a leading lawn care and gardening advice authority, has found that Herefordshire is the greenest county in England.

Lawn Care Pro released the results of a study into the greenest counties in England, based on their overall levels of green space. The study used satellite imagery to compute the average colour of each English county.

The study found Herefordshire is the greenest county in England, followed by Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

"It was no surprise to see Herefordshire perform so well, as a sparsely-populated county with rich agricultural heritage," said Josh Thompson, founder of Lawn Care Pro. "Apart from its lush green fields of Hereford beef cattle, the Wye Valley and Herefordshire’s orchards also helped the country to first place in our rankings."

Wiltshire and Gloucestershire were also found to be extremely green, coming in at just 0.76% and 0.79% less green than Herefordshire, respectively.

Josh added: "Although Wiltshire features a lot of urban space in and around Swindon, the county is large enough, and has enough agricultural land, to still make it to second place. Wiltshire is also a relative wetter, milder county, helping to make its meadows and paddocks particularly lush.

"In Gloucestershire, the Avon Green Belt reaches into the county, and it also features the Forest of Dean - a wooded area of more than 42 square miles. Both Wiltshire and Gloucestershire have more of a rural and urban mix than Herefordshire, but their vast expanses of green space help them into the top three greenest counties in the country."

Other counties that did not perform very well were often highly urbanised, or had other geographic features that made their country less green than most others.

The research was conducted in January 2022, and used England’s ceremonial counties defined in the Lieutenancies Act 1997. For more information, visit: https://lawncarepro.co.uk/englands-greenest-counties/