Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire

The Environment Agency records 12 historic landfill sites in and around Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. covering roughly 192 hectares in total. The largest is West Burton Power Station Tip at 91.82 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to special (hazardous) waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

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

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
West Burton Power Station Tip91.82 ha1994Liquid / sludgeIndustrialInert
Cottam Power Station31.01 haIndustrial
Cottam Power Station30.79 haIndustrial
Rampton Gravel Pit, Torksey Ferry Road13.78 haWaste types not recorded
Refuse Tip off Caves Lane8.38 ha1982SpecialIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Lea Road Tip5.89 haLiquid / sludgeIndustrialCommercialInert
Laughton Lane3.19 ha1965Commercial
Rampton Quarry2.51 haWaste types not recorded
Land East Of Village Hall1.84 ha1994Inert
Heapham Disused Sewage Treatment Works1.28 haInert
Misterton Castings Limited, Misterton1.23 haWaste types not recorded
The Old Brick Pits0.46 ha1994SpecialIndustrialHouseholdInert

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 Gainsborough?
12 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Gainsborough 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 Gainsborough?
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.