Crap Towns / Northamptonshire / Earls Barton
Earls Barton
17/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 17. 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
Kinky Boots, then nowt.
The shoe factory got a film. The fields are getting houses.
Earls Barton's shoe factory got turned into Kinky Boots and the village has dined out on it ever since. Otherwise it's annoyingly decent. Low crime, a library the volunteers keep open, and plenty of pubs.
The only moan is housing. Loads more homes coming, and the school and the surgery are already rammed. There's no park, so the new lot can join the 40% who already live a fair walk from anywhere to play. And of its 28 rated kitchens, 2 are dodgy, which round here counts as a scandal.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Earls Barton's 72 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 72% of towns.
- Food hygiene72/1007.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 28 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution62/1008.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping62/10011.8 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Northamptonshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Sewage spills39/100172 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain29/100120 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Broadband28/1005.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.7% across the North Northamptonshire council area
- Deliberate fires22/1003.2 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
- Serious road collisions6/1000.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson2/1002.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Kettering | 54 |
| 5 | Corby | 52 |
| 6 | Rushden | 47 |
| 7 | Raunds | 43 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.8 | Burton Latimer | 34 |
| 9 | Towcester | 31 |
| 10 | Desborough | 21 |
| – | Earls Barton | 17 |
| 11 | Brackley | 13 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Earls Barton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 36.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 52% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 111 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 183 per 10,000 people, 53.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2018
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 3 hairdressers, 1 vape shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 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
- 12.15am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.7% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 40% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 40.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Worse: 2.6x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,550 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
North Northamptonshire council
- £2,424 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £32 more than the English average
- 8% of North Northamptonshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 50% lower than England's 16%
- 25 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Earls Barton 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.