Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

The Environment Agency records 31 historic landfill sites in and around Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. covering roughly 100 hectares in total. The largest is The Folly at 16.38 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to industrial waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

Recorded landfill boundaries around Bury St Edmunds (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
The Folly16.38 haInert
Railway Cutting16.02 ha1978HouseholdCommercial
Thetford Road12.87 ha1988HouseholdCommercial
Near West Stow Heath11.87 ha1976HouseholdCommercial
Culford Road4.91 ha1973Commercial
Haberden4.7 haHousehold
Frost Realisations3.79 ha1987CommercialInert
Bury Sugar Beet Factory3.73 haIndustrial
Fornham Bypass Construction3.32 ha1991Inert
The Follys Quarry3.03 haWaste types not recorded
The Follys Quarry3.03 haIndustrial
British Sugar - Bury St Edmunds Sugar Factory3.02 haIndustrial
Tayfen Meadow2.03 ha1993Inert
Mount Road1.54 haWaste types not recorded
Railway Cutting1.41 haWaste types not recorded
Hand Laundry Tips1.38 haIndustrialCommercial
Little Livermere1.27 ha1992Inert
Land off Green Lane1.04 ha1993Inert
Balloon Barn Farm0.73 ha1992Inert
Church Lane0.71 ha1986Inert
Balloon Barn Farm0.49 ha1992Inert
Paddock0.42 haWaste types not recorded
Rushbrooke Lane0.39 haWaste types not recorded
South of Stowlangtoft Spinney0.37 ha1989Inert
Sicklesmere Road0.21 ha1991Inert
Rushbrooke Lane0.2 haWaste types not recorded
The Folly0.2 ha1973Waste types not recorded
The Butts0.2 haWaste types not recorded
Culford School0.1 haIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Hall Farm0.08 haInert
Wollaston Close0.05 haWaste 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 Bury St Edmunds?
31 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Bury St Edmunds 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 Bury St Edmunds?
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.