Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Colne, Lancashire

The Environment Agency records 19 historic landfill sites in and around Colne, Lancashire. covering roughly 44 hectares in total. The largest is Bunkers Hill, Land between M65 to North Valley Road at 11.15 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to special (hazardous) waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

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

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
Bunkers Hill, Land between M65 to North Valley Road11.15 ha1989HouseholdInert
Catlow Quarry8.65 ha1977Household
Burwains Quarry4.18 ha1990SpecialIndustrialCommercialInert
Burwains Quarry4.18 ha1990SpecialIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Knotts Lane3.49 ha1982IndustrialHouseholdCommercial
Sansbury Quarry3.06 ha1990IndustrialCommercialInert
Noyna Quarry2.17 haIndustrialInert
Coal Wharf2.09 ha1955Household
Byron Road2.04 ha1966Inert
Gib Clough Head Farm0.84 ha1992Inert
Dry Clough Farm0.47 ha1992Inert
Foulridge Municipal0.3 ha1947HouseholdInert
Barrowford Road Refuse Tip0.2 ha1971Commercial
Birchenlee Foundry0.2 ha1983IndustrialInert
Coal Pit Meadow0.2 ha1990Industrial
Skipton Old Road0.2 haWaste types not recorded
Red Scar0.05 haWaste types not recorded
Site of Former Gas Holder0.05 ha1989Inert
Cock Leach0.04 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 Colne?
19 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Colne 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 Colne?
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.