Harworth and Bircotes

Pit's gone. The bins go up instead.

Twinned with a wheelie bin on fire

57/100Crap Score

Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 57. Higher scores are crapper.

How the score works

Have your say

Crap Town of the Year 2026/27

See the race

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

Letters from the locals

Got something to say about Harworth and Bircotes? Write in.

The bins are on fire again.

The pit land's turning into houses. The bins and the grass keep turning into bonfires.

Harworth and Bircotes was built for the pit, and the pit land is houses now. The shops have seen better days, the takeaways have cars parked on the pavement outside, and there's 1 hairdresser and 2 pubs for the lot of them.

What the place does have is fire. Deliberate fires run at nearly five times the typical town's rate, mostly bins and rubbish, with the grass and woods not far behind. Bassetlaw charges well over England's average in council tax and is rubbish at recycling, so there's always plenty left in the bins to burn. It's middling. It could be worse. It could be Doncaster.

The editor, who smelt burning all the way from Bawtry

What the score is made of

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

Harworth and Bircotes's 92 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 92% of towns.

Deliberate fires92/10026.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
Criminal damage and arson78/1009.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
Fly-tipping76/10017.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bassetlaw council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
Anti-social behaviour63/10017.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
Sewage spills55/100335 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
Broadband54/1003.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 19.1% across the Bassetlaw council area
Air pollution51/1006.7 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
Rain32/100121 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
Food hygiene24/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 42 food businesses with a rating
Serious road collisions19/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025

**Your patch: Nottinghamshire**Towns in the same county. Top of the table is crappest.
Pos	Town	National	Score
8	Stapleford	289th	71
9	Eastwood	323rd	67
10	Hucknall	359th	64
11	Retford	390th	60
–	Harworth and Bircotes	–	57
12	Forest Town	443rd	55
13	Mansfield Woodhouse	446th	55
14	Balderton	450th	54
15	New Ollerton and Ollerton	451st	54

Harworth and Bircotes 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

Bassetlaw council

Have a crap-off

Harworth and Bircotes against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.

Against

Harworth and BircotesCrap Score 57

New Rossington and RossingtonCrap Score 45

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