Historic landfill sites in Bacup, Lancashire
The Environment Agency records 21 historic landfill sites in and around Bacup, Lancashire. covering roughly 38 hectares in total. The largest is Brandwood Reclamation A at 16.66 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to industrial waste. Data: October 2025 revision.
Recorded landfill boundaries around Bacup (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).
All recorded sites, largest first
| Site | Area | Last input | Waste types |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandwood Reclamation A | 16.66 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Land off Lane End Road | 4.27 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Brandwood Reclamation B | 2.67 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Blackwood Tip | 2.54 ha | — | Commercial |
| Sheephouse Reservoir | 2.33 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Hilltop Colliery | 2.22 ha | — | IndustrialInert |
| Holden Gate Landfill Site | 1.26 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Clough Head Quarry | 1.01 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Forest Mill | 0.9 ha | — | Inert |
| Calder Head Farm | 0.83 ha | — | Inert |
| Cliviger Fish Ponds | 0.72 ha | 1991 | Inert |
| Land off Todmorden Road | 0.7 ha | — | IndustrialHousehold |
| Wycock Limited | 0.48 ha | 1978 | Waste types not recorded |
| Slate Pit Hill | 0.38 ha | — | HouseholdInert |
| Calder Head Farm | 0.24 ha | 1987 | Commercial |
| Jack Lodge Quarry Landfill | 0.22 ha | — | IndustrialInert |
| Merrills Head | 0.2 ha | — | IndustrialInert |
| Cemetery Tip | 0.2 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Land off Tong Lane | 0.2 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Former Pipeworks | 0.19 ha | 1993 | Inert |
| Saunderclough Works | 0.06 ha | 1977 | Inert |
What this data does — and doesn't — cover
- Licensed-era records only. Waste licensing began in 1974. Older tips — especially small pre-war ones — are incompletely recorded, so absence from this data does not mean no landfill ever existed here.
- Not the contaminated-land register. Councils hold a separate register of land determined as contaminated. A historic landfill entry is not a contamination determination, and vice versa.
- Boundaries are indicative. Digitised at 1:10,000 scale; some are buffers around a point rather than surveyed edges.
- Not a substitute for a formal environmental search. If you're buying, your conveyancer's environmental search checks this and several other sources.
EA Historic Landfill dataset, October 2025 revision. More on the methodology page.
Common questions
- How many former landfill sites are there in Bacup?
- 21 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Bacup town centre in the Environment Agency's Historic Landfill dataset (October 2025 revision). Pre-1974 sites are incompletely recorded, so the true historical number is likely higher.
- How do I check a specific address in Bacup?
- Search the postcode on Landfill Check — you'll see every recorded site within 1km, with distance, direction and waste types, measured to the site boundary.
Nearby areas
Worth reading: buying a house near a former landfill and what the waste types mean.