Crap Towns / Cheshire / Davenham
Davenham
12/100Crap Score
870th crappest of 984 towns, and 20th in Cheshire. 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
Davenham. Nice. Annoyingly.
Pretty Cheshire village, hardly any crime, and a river that gets the sewage instead.
Davenham's about as nice as Cheshire gets, a conservation area round a crossroads with no crime worth mentioning. Hardly anything gets nicked and hardly anything gets smashed. It had a castle once. Lost that. There are 13 public parks, four times the typical town's rate per head, so there's plenty of green to be smug on.
The moans are London Road jamming despite the bypass and the queue at the petrol station. And the river. Sewage comes out of the overflows for nearly six times as long as in the typical town. Pretty village, shitty river.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Davenham's 91 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 91% of towns.
- Sewage spills91/1001,584 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain73/100148 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene51/1002.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 38 food businesses with a rating
- Fly-tipping34/1008.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Cheshire West and Chester council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution28/1006.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband25/1001.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 11.7% across the Cheshire West and Chester council area
- Anti-social behaviour11/1005.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires11/1002.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions4/1000.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson0/1001.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Nantwich | 28 |
| 13 | Neston | 28 |
| 14 | Alsager | 22 |
| 15 | Lymm | 21 |
| 16 | Wilmslow | 21 |
| 17 | Poynton | 15 |
| 18 | Knutsford | 14 |
| 19 | Macclesfield | 12 |
| 20 | Davenham | 12 |
Davenham by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 31.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 59% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 5 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 3.6 per 10,000 people, 6% higher than the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 6 pubs, 6 hairdressers, 1 charity shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.7 per 10,000 people, 56% 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
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.19pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.5% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 0.5%
- 5.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 68% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,466 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Cheshire West and Chester council
- £2,517 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £125 more than the English average
- 6% of Cheshire West and Chester council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 63% lower than England's 16%
- 16 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Davenham 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.