Crap TownsBritain's towns, rated by the people stuck in them

Crap Towns / Derbyshire / Chapel-en-le-Frith

Welcome to

Chapel-en-le-Frith

Capital of the Peak. Still bloody wet.
Twinned with a wet walking boot

9/100Crap Score

Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 9. Higher scores are crapper.

How the score works

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Crap Town of the Year 2026/27

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The public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.

Letters from the locals

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Capital of sod all.

Cobbles, old stocks and lovely walks in the pissing rain.

Chapel calls itself the Capital of the Peak. It's got a cobbled market place, the old stocks, a few charity shops and a Greggs. Some capital. The shops keep emptying and nobody seems to know what's happening to the market.

It chucks it down on 170 days a year. When it isn't raining on you, the storm overflows are emptying into the river at more than nine times the typical town's rate. Wet from above, shit from below. Of a weekend the lads with the popping exhausts do laps of the town, which is the most excitement the stocks have seen in years. The walking round here's lovely. Keep walking.

The editor, still drying out

What the score is made of

Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.

Chapel-en-le-Frith's 96 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 96% of towns.

  • Sewage spills96/1002,527 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
  • Rain91/100170 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
  • Broadband89/10019.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 14.7% across the High Peak council area
  • Food hygiene27/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 37 food businesses with a rating
  • Air pollution25/1005.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
  • Serious road collisions10/1001.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
  • Deliberate fires7/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
  • Fly-tipping6/1004.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, High Peak council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
  • Criminal damage and arson5/1003.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
  • Anti-social behaviour1/1005.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
Your patch: DerbyshireTowns in the same county. Top of the table is crappest.
PosTownNationalScore
12Buxton572nd42
13Hadfield634th36
14Long Eaton661st33
15Brimington767th22
16Glossop831st16
17Swadlincote847th14
–Chapel-en-le-Frith–9
18Belper904th8
19Dronfield945th4

Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.

Chapel-en-le-Frith by numbers

Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.

Crime, muck and dodgy water

What's left on the high street

Getting about, getting online, getting rained on

High Peak council

Have a crap-off

Chapel-en-le-Frith against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.

Chapel-en-le-FrithCrap Score 9
v
New MillsCrap Score 25

Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.