Crap Towns / Shropshire / Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth
23/100Crap Score
Locals call it Bnorth.
758th crappest of 984 towns, and 5th in Shropshire. 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
Get your wallet out and your legs ready.
High Town and Low Town, a railway up the cliff, and no bus home on a Sunday.
Bridgnorth has a High Town and a Low Town with a cliff in between, and they built a railway up it because nobody could be arsed to walk. Now there's a row about the wall holding it up and who pays for it. Up top it's charity shops, 25 pubs and 2 Greggs, which per head is more than five times the typical town's Greggs.
Barclays and Lloyds have both announced they're off. Nearly one in seven premises can't get gigabit broadband. On a weeknight the last bus pulls out at 8.01pm, so after a night in the pubs you're walking, and it's uphill whichever end you live. Nice view, mind.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Bridgnorth's 88 for broadband means it's crapper than 88% of towns.
- Broadband88/10013.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 25.4% across the Shropshire council area
- Sewage spills75/100729 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain56/100131 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene54/1002.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 111 food businesses with a rating
- Criminal damage and arson34/1005.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions30/1001.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires26/1003.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour22/10010.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution15/1004.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping9/1004.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Shropshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Telford | 59 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Shrewsbury | 39 |
| 3 | Newport | 29 |
| 4 | Oswestry | 28 |
| 5 | Bridgnorth | 23 |
| 6 | Ludlow | 19 |
| 7 | Market Drayton | 8 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Bridgnorth by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 56.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 27% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 351 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 288 per 10,000 people, 84.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 25 pubs, 10 hairdressers, 7 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 3 banks, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 16.4 per 100,000 people, 4.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.5 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 8.01pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 26.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.7x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,518 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Shropshire council
Have a crap-off
Bridgnorth 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.