Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Chesham, Buckinghamshire

The Environment Agency records 13 historic landfill sites in and around Chesham, Buckinghamshire. covering roughly 45 hectares in total. The largest is Dunton's Brickworks at 8.33 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to special (hazardous) waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

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

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
Dunton's Brickworks8.33 ha1972Waste types not recorded
Meadhams Farm No.16.38 ha1993IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Cowcroft Brickworks4.84 haIndustrialCommercial
Chesham Moor4.23 ha1974IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Botley Lane Landfill4.08 ha1975SpecialInert
Cowcroft Brickworks3.8 ha1989IndustrialCommercialInert
Cowcroft Brickworks3.66 ha1989IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Lye Green Landfill3.64 haWaste types not recorded
Cowcroft Brickworks2.54 ha1989IndustrialInert
Peppets Green1.79 haWaste types not recorded
Bois Moor Quarry1.13 ha1992Inert
Cowcroft Brickworks0.44 ha1992IndustrialCommercialInert
Spencers Hole0.01 ha1985Inert

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 Chesham?
13 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Chesham 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 Chesham?
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.