Historic landfill sites in Colchester, Essex
The Environment Agency records 15 historic landfill sites in and around Colchester, Essex. covering roughly 139 hectares in total. The largest is Bell House Pit at 59.01 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to industrial waste. Data: October 2025 revision.
Recorded landfill boundaries around Colchester (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).
All recorded sites, largest first
| Site | Area | Last input | Waste types |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bell House Pit | 59.01 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Shrub End | 24.36 ha | 1990 | IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert |
| Old House Farm | 13.28 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Old House Farm | 13.28 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| London Road | 9.64 ha | — | Inert |
| Warren Lane | 5.21 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Eames Pet Cemetery | 2.67 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| London Road | 2.54 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Whitehall Close | 2 ha | 1987 | IndustrialHouseholdInert |
| Wilson Marriage School | 1.61 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Foundry Lane | 1.56 ha | 1980 | IndustrialHouseholdInert |
| Gravel Pits | 1.56 ha | 1961 | HouseholdCommercial |
| London Road | 1.21 ha | 1990 | Inert |
| Bellhouse Quarry | 0.35 ha | — | IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert |
| St Albrights | 0.19 ha | 1961 | HouseholdCommercial |
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 Colchester?
- 15 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Colchester 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 Colchester?
- 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.