Crap Towns / Leicestershire / Barwell
Barwell
10/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 10. 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 Barwell? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Still banging on about a rock.
The most exciting thing ever to happen here fell out of the sky on Christmas Eve.
Barwell got hit by a meteorite on Christmas Eve 1965. A bit of space rock went through a car engine, and they've been dining out on it ever since. They'll tell you whether you ask or not. Since then, nothing, apart from lads racing on the bypass at night and motorbikes screaming up and down. Nobody even nicks from the shops.
They shut the library in 2016 and there's no public pool, so the meteorite still does most of the heavy lifting. Barwellians would happily take another one if it meant something new to talk about.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Barwell's 85 for broadband means it's crapper than 85% of towns.
- Broadband85/10015.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.4% across the Hinckley and Bosworth council area
- Air pollution58/1008.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Sewage spills53/100311 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson39/1006.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain38/100123 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene27/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 37 food businesses with a rating
- Fly-tipping26/1007.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Hinckley and Bosworth council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires21/1003.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions12/1001.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour6/1007.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Enderby and Narborough | 29 |
| 8 | Whitwick | 27 |
| 9 | Shepshed | 13 |
| 10 | Hinckley | 11 |
| – | Barwell | 10 |
| 11 | Mountsorrel | 10 |
| 12 | Earl Shilton | 9 |
| 13 | Ashby-de-la-Zouch | 7 |
| 14 | Lutterworth | 2 |
Barwell by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 58.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 23% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of fly-tipping on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 About the same: 1.1 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical town's 1.1
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Barwell (2016)
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.1 per 10,000 people, 31% 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
- 12.05am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.6% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 20% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 10.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 33% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,506 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Hinckley and Bosworth council
- £2,383 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £9 less than the English average
- 11% of Leicestershire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 31% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Barwell 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.