Crap Towns / Worcestershire / Bewdley
Bewdley
19/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 19. 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
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agree it's crap have defended it
Bewdley. Pretty, smug, flooded.
Georgian houses, steam trains and the Severn in your front room most winters.
Bewdley is pretty and it bloody knows it. Georgian riverfront, steam trains, a cherry fair. Then the Severn comes up and sits in the front rooms again, the bridge shuts, and the whole place acts surprised. It's next to Kidderminster, which makes anywhere look good.
There are 18 pubs, more than four times the typical town's per head, and not one bus on a Sunday to get you home from any of them. The kitchens are dodgier than you'd think for somewhere this up itself: 4 of the 51 food places with a rating score 0 to 2. And the grass gets torched more now than it used to.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Bewdley's 83 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 83% of towns.
- Food hygiene83/1007.8% rated 0 to 2, of the 51 food businesses with a rating
- Broadband74/10012.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 11.9% across the Wyre Forest council area
- Deliberate fires68/1009.1 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain47/100126 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping29/1007.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wyre Forest council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour24/10010.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson23/1005.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions20/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution16/1004.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Sewage spills8/1003.4 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2024 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evesham | 47 |
| 2 | Kidderminster | 47 |
| 3 | Stourport-on-Severn | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.4 | Redditch | 35 |
| 5 | Worcester | 29 |
| 6 | Great Malvern | 27 |
| 7 | Bromsgrove | 26 |
| 8 | Catshill | 19 |
| – | Bewdley | 19 |
| 9 | Droitwich Spa | 2 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Bewdley by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 51.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 33% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of dog fouling on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2016
What's left on the high street
- 18 pubs, 7 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.4 per 10,000 people, 1.5x the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 8.35pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.8% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 1.6x the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 32% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,545 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Wyre Forest council
- £2,512 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £120 more than the English average
- 18% of Worcestershire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Bewdley 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.