Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Barrow-in-Furness, Westmorland and Furness

The Environment Agency records 18 historic landfill sites in and around Barrow-in-Furness, Westmorland and Furness. covering roughly 119 hectares in total. The largest is Central Electricity Generating Board at 28.09 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to special (hazardous) waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

Recorded landfill boundaries around Barrow-in-Furness (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
Central Electricity Generating Board28.09 haIndustrialInert
South Walney Stage 119.95 ha1979SpecialLiquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Roosecote Power Station17.39 ha1986Liquid / sludgeIndustrialInert
Land adjacent to Cavendish Dock and Buccleuch Dock10.04 ha1992Inert
Upper Ormsgill Reservoir7.95 ha1984Inert
North Walney Island6.59 ha1993IndustrialInert
Clay Pit6.31 haIndustrialInert
South Walney Stage 34.56 ha1987SpecialIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
North Walney Eastern Extension3.51 ha1994SpecialIndustrialInert
Lower Ormsgill3.37 haSpecialLiquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
South Walney Eastern Extension Stage 22.71 ha1984SpecialIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Land to the South West of Rampside Road2.51 ha1990Inert
Rampside Road North2.21 ha1989Inert
Roosecote Power Station1.72 ha1990Inert
Salthouse Pool1.43 ha1984Liquid / sludgeInert
Timber Pond0.2 ha1977Waste types not recorded
Barrow Steel Works0.17 ha1983SpecialLiquid / sludgeIndustrial
Whitehead Street0.03 ha1983Inert

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 Barrow-in-Furness?
18 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Barrow-in-Furness 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 Barrow-in-Furness?
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.