Abbey Fields is the town's defining green space: 65 acres of meadow, mature trees, a lake, and the ruins of St Mary's Abbey lying in long grass. The site has been a public park since the 1870s and feels older — children playing where Augustinian canons once chanted matins.
On the south side, the Abbey Fields swimming pool is a popular outdoor lido in summer. The east side runs up to St Nicholas Church, built partly from priory rubble; the great west doorway is salvaged twelfth-century Norman work. A circular footpath of about a mile takes in the lot.