Crap Towns / Warwickshire / Shipston-on-Stour
Shipston-on-Stour
1/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 1. Higher scores are crapper.
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Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
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Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Shipston. Floods, then sewage lorries.
A posh little Cotswold town that floods, and the sewers can't cope.
Shipston-on-Stour means sheep wash town, and it's a posh little place with old coaching inns, the Shipston Proms and no trouble to speak of. Nobody sets fire to anything. Going by the figures, nobody even takes drugs.
Then the Stour floods, the new houses keep coming and the sewers are so full they've got tankers carting the waste away over the narrow bridge. The storm overflows spill at 2.3 times the typical town's rate anyway. Lloyds left in 2025, the charity shops moved in, and the last bus goes at 8.36pm. Very nice. Smells a bit.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Shipston-on-Stour's 71 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 71% of towns.
- Sewage spills71/100638 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband27/1000.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 14.7% across the Stratford-on-Avon council area
- Food hygiene26/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 38 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour23/10010.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution19/1004.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Rain14/100115 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson8/1003.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions7/1000.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires6/1001.1 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping4/1003.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Stratford-on-Avon council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bedworth | 70 |
| 2 | Warwick | 64 |
| 3 | Nuneaton | 62 |
| 4 | Rugby | 54 |
| 5 | Royal Leamington Spa | 46 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.6 | Stratford-upon-Avon | 37 |
| 7 | Kenilworth | 26 |
| – | Shipston-on-Stour | 1 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Shipston-on-Stour by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 47.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 38% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 10 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 17.1 per 10,000 people, 5x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 4 hairdressers, 3 charity shops, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 17.1 per 100,000 people, 5x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 6% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 2.4x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 8.36pm 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%
- 12.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 23% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,539 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Stratford-on-Avon council
- £2,484 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £92 more than the English average
- 13% of Warwickshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 19% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Shipston-on-Stour 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.