Crap Towns / Shropshire / Broseley
Broseley
9/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 9. 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
Lorry versus jitty. Jitty wins.
Nice little old town. Lorries keep getting wedged in it.
Broseley made clay pipes, so many that the town's name was what people called a pipe. Now it's a quiet little place with alleys called jitties and streets too narrow for a van. The lorries try anyway. Not one serious crash from 2021 to 2025, which, given the lorries, is a miracle.
Down the hill, the Severn at Ironbridge is the only spot near here you could swim, and it's rated Poor. The storm drains nearby chuck out sewage for four and a half times as long as the typical town's, so that tracks. Nearly a fifth of premises can't get gigabit broadband and there's no bus on a Sunday. Lovely and old. Bit cut off.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Broseley's 93 for broadband means it's crapper than 93% of towns.
- Broadband93/10019.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 25.4% across the Shropshire council area
- Sewage spills86/1001,227 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain60/100133 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene34/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 22 food businesses with a rating
- Criminal damage and arson32/1005.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution14/1004.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires12/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour11/1008.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping9/1004.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Shropshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions0/1000.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| 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 |
| – | Broseley | 9 |
| 7 | Market Drayton | 8 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Broseley by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 42.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 45% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 140 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 250 per 10,000 people, 73.5x the typical town's 3.4
- Poor River Severn at Ironbridge's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 1 charity shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.6 per 10,000 people, 2.3x 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
- 9.07pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than 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%
- 27.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,468 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
Broseley 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.