Crap Towns / Derbyshire / Overseal and Castle Gresley
Overseal and Castle Gresley
10/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 10. 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
Lorries all night.
Castle Gresley got a bypass. Overseal got the lorries.
Castle Gresley has an old castle mound that everyone calls Castle Knob, and nobody has grown out of it. Overseal runs a pretend border war with Netherseal, complete with imaginary passes to get in, and every so often the gala committee is supposed to have staged a coup. Overseal once claimed to be the population centre of Britain, which is the most attention it's ever had.
Then the bypass went in. Castle Gresley got the peace and quiet and Overseal got the lorries, rattling the windows all night. Under it all the storm overflows spill at 9.9 times the typical town's rate, which is a lot of shit for the middle of the National Forest. Nobody vandalises anything, mind. They're too busy laughing at the Knob.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Overseal and Castle Gresley's 97 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 97% of towns.
- Sewage spills97/1002,721 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain50/100127 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene42/100
- Broadband36/1005.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 7.4% across the South Derbyshire council area
- Air pollution32/1005.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.7 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions21/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires15/1002.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping14/1005.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, South Derbyshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour6/1007.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson4/1003.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Buxton | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.13 | Hadfield | 36 |
| 14 | Long Eaton | 33 |
| 15 | Brimington | 22 |
| 16 | Glossop | 16 |
| 17 | Swadlincote | 14 |
| – | Overseal and Castle Gresley | 10 |
| 18 | Belper | 8 |
| 19 | Dronfield | 4 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Overseal and Castle Gresley by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 47.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 38% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of litter and bins on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 2.0 per 10,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 0.9
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 3 hairdressers on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.0 per 10,000 people, 25% higher 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
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.34pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 5.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 63% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,487 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
South Derbyshire council
- £2,340 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £52 less than the English average
- 15% of Derbyshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 6% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Overseal and Castle Gresley 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.