Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Horwich
Horwich
93/100Crap Score
70th crappest of 984 towns, and 14th in Greater Manchester. 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
Got something to say about Horwich? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Wanderers play here. Don't tell Bolton.
The loco works shut, the football ground turned up, and the Beehive roundabout's been jammed ever since.
Horwich built locomotives till the works shut. Now it's housing estates and Middlebrook retail park, with the Wanderers ground plonked in the middle while Bolton pretends it's still theirs. On match days the Beehive roundabout is a car park. It's Horrich, by the way.
There's rain on 171 days a year, which makes for a lot of nights in with a takeaway, and one in six takeaways with a rating gets 0 to 2 from the hygiene inspectors, four times the typical town's share. There are 26 hairdressers and six times the typical town's vape shops per head. Rivington Pike's lovely, mind.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Horwich's 93 for rain means it's crapper than 93% of towns.
- Rain93/100171 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping90/10023.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bolton council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Food hygiene83/1005.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 175 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions83/1003.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires72/10010.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson65/1008.1 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Sewage spills61/100420 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Air pollution59/10010.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Anti-social behaviour52/10015.5 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Broadband30/1005.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.0% across the Bolton council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Rochdale | 94 |
| 11 | Oldham | 94 |
| 12 | Little Hulton | 93 |
| 13 | Audenshaw | 93 |
| 14 | Horwich | 93 |
| 15 | Swinton | 93 |
| 16 | Ashton-under-Lyne | 91 |
| 17 | Middleton | 91 |
| 18 | Worsley | 90 |
Horwich by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 96.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Worse: 27% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 3 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.4 per 10,000 people, 59% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2016
What's left on the high street
- 16 pubs, 26 hairdressers, 8 charity shops, 3 bookmakers, 4 vape shops, 1 bank, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 16.1% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (5 of 31) Worse: 4x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 4.8 per 100,000 people, 41% higher than the typical town's 3.4
- 2 public swimming pools open; 3 closed for good since 2010 Better: 1.0 per 10,000 people, 43% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 2 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.34am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 29.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.9x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,387 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 9% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Bolton council
Have a crap-off
Horwich 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.