Crap Towns / Lancashire / Bacup
Bacup
99/100Crap Score
People from here are Buttercups.
11th crappest of 984 towns, and 4th in Lancashire. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
See the raceThe public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.
Letters from the locals
Got something to say about Bacup? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
They wrestle in gravy here. Honestly.
Lovely old cotton town. Shame about everything else.
Bacup is a lovely old cotton town, everyone says so, all stone terraces and mills, and the centre is on the Heritage at Risk register. The market's been shut for redevelopment for so long that the traders drifted off and never came back.
You get rain on 183 days a year, nearly 1,500 mm of it, and the sun gets 1,289 hours. The town has one pub. One pub, in a town where it rains half the year. Anti-social behaviour is up at nearly three times the typical town's rate, and the local firebugs are setting fire to something more than four times as often. In that rain.
Up the road in Stacksteads they wrestle in gravy, and that's the best thing going on.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Bacup's 99 for rain means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Rain99/100183 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour98/10040.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills95/1002,257 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson95/10013.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires92/10024.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Food hygiene85/1006.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 92 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions84/1003.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping69/10015.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Rossendale council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution24/1006.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband17/1002.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 7.1% across the Rossendale council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Padiham | 100 |
| 2 | Blackburn | 100 |
| 3 | Colne | 99 |
| 4 | Bacup | 99 |
| 5 | Darwen | 99 |
| 6 | Lancaster | 99 |
| 7 | Accrington | 99 |
| 8 | Burnley | 98 |
| 9 | Preston | 98 |
Bacup by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 97.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 28% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 3 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 2.2 per 10,000 people, 35% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 13 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2024
What's left on the high street
- 1 pub, 2 hairdressers, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 10.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 20) Worse: 2.5x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 banking hub opened here
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.5 per 10,000 people, 6% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.22pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 15.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space About the same: About the same as the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,289 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 16% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Rossendale council
Have a crap-off
Bacup against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.
- ?Fly-tippingper 1,000, council area?
- ?Anti-social behaviourper 1,000 people?
- ?Serious road crashesper 10,000 people?
- ?Sewage spillshours per 10,000 people?
- ?Food hygienerated poor?
- ?Criminal damageper 1,000 people?
- ?Dirty airµg/m³?
- ?No gigabitof premises can't get it?
- ?Deliberate firesper 10,000 people?
- ?Raindays a year?
Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.