Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Blackburn, Blackburn with Darwen

The Environment Agency records 38 historic landfill sites in and around Blackburn, Blackburn with Darwen. covering roughly 103 hectares in total. The largest is Withnell Quarries at 22.01 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to special (hazardous) waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

Recorded landfill boundaries around Blackburn (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
Withnell Quarries22.01 ha1997IndustrialHouseholdCommercial
Stockclough Quarry LCC9.26 ha1989IndustrialHouseholdCommercial
Bog Height7.51 ha1989IndustrialCommercialInert
Coal Pit Farm6.24 ha1978Inert
Whitebirk Playing Fields5.71 ha—HouseholdInert
Greenbank Industrial Estate5.49 ha1973HouseholdInert
Audley Quarry4.89 ha—Waste types not recorded
Lewis Sharrock Delph4.62 ha—SpecialInert
Stanworth Farm4.33 ha1997Inert
Royshaw Quarry3.61 ha—HouseholdInert
Park Lee Road3.21 ha—Inert
Sun Paper Mill3.15 ha1976IndustrialCommercialInert
Abbot Brow2.44 ha1980IndustrialHouseholdCommercial
Land Adjacent 3B Shed2.36 ha—Inert
Greenbank Gas Works2.34 ha1986SpecialIndustrialCommercialInert
Star Paper Mill2.28 ha—Waste types not recorded
North Road2.24 ha1970HouseholdInert
Land adjacent to A591.56 ha1992Inert
Delph Lane Tip1.45 ha1979Inert
North of St James Road1.36 ha—HouseholdInert
Imperial Mill1.24 ha1978IndustrialInert
Bennington Street/Pringle Street0.95 ha—Waste types not recorded
Nash Playing Fields0.95 ha1970Inert
Mullards0.88 ha1990SpecialIndustrialInert
Bunkers Hill0.33 ha—Waste types not recorded
British Northrop Limited0.31 ha—IndustrialInert
Shire Lane0.3 ha1978Liquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercial
Brundhurst Farm0.28 ha1985Inert
Copster Hall0.23 ha—HouseholdCommercial
Dewhurst Farm0.2 ha1968HouseholdCommercial
Sunnybower Playing Fields0.2 ha—IndustrialCommercialInert
Gillibrand Rubber0.2 ha—Industrial
British Gas Holder Station0.2 ha1988Inert
St Frances Road Playing Fields0.2 ha1967Waste types not recorded
Abbey Village0.2 ha—Household
Billinge End School0.2 ha—Waste types not recorded
Higher Stanworth Farm0.16 ha1988Inert
Higher Stanworth Farm0.16 ha—Waste types not recorded

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 Blackburn?
38 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Blackburn 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 Blackburn?
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.