Historic landfill sites in Leeds
The Environment Agency records 44 historic landfill sites in and around Leeds. covering roughly 138 hectares in total. The largest is Middleton Broom Colliery at 19.85 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to special (hazardous) waste. Data: October 2025 revision.
Recorded landfill boundaries around Leeds (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).
All recorded sites, largest first
| Site | Area | Last input | Waste types |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middleton Broom Colliery | 19.85 ha | 1985 | SpecialIndustrialHouseholdCommercial |
| Hunslet Grange, Former Housing Site | 12.67 ha | — | CommercialInert |
| Hunslet East Tip Site | 10.98 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Kirkstall Power Station | 9.26 ha | — | Liquid / sludgeIndustrial |
| Field Adjacent To Blackhill | 8.72 ha | — | Inert |
| Old Ashfields | 8.3 ha | 1986 | CommercialInert |
| Refuse Tip off Knowsthorpe Lane | 7.82 ha | — | Household |
| Playing Fields at Potternewton Lane | 6.76 ha | 1968 | Household |
| Lowfields Road | 5.46 ha | 1977 | Liquid / sludgeIndustrialInert |
| Parkside Quarry | 3.88 ha | 1972 | Household |
| Allied Brickworks | 3.48 ha | 1974 | IndustrialHouseholdCommercial |
| Brown Lane East | 3.29 ha | — | Liquid / sludgeIndustrial |
| Knostrop Depot | 2.88 ha | — | CommercialInert |
| Severn Way | 2.88 ha | 1989 | CommercialInert |
| New Wartley Holder Station / Armley Gyratory | 2.6 ha | 1994 | CommercialInert |
| Hunslet Branch Line | 2.55 ha | 1986 | HouseholdCommercialInert |
| The Goit | 2.32 ha | — | HouseholdCommercialInert |
| North of Brainwood School, Elmete Lane | 1.93 ha | 1984 | CommercialInert |
| Curve of Roadway directly behind Severn Way Industrial Estate | 1.9 ha | — | CommercialInert |
| Land Adjacent Gathorne Terrace | 1.77 ha | 1984 | CommercialInert |
| John King and Company Leeds Limited | 1.71 ha | 1981 | CommercialInert |
| Carnegie College | 1.65 ha | 1982 | CommercialInert |
| Smithy Mills Lane - Ring Road Adel | 1.47 ha | 1991 | CommercialInert |
| Gelderd Trading Estate | 1.46 ha | — | Inert |
| Elford Place, Banstead Terrace | 1.36 ha | 1983 | Inert |
| Golf Course | 1.26 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Holy Name Roman Catholic School | 0.94 ha | 1982 | CommercialInert |
| Kirkstall Power Station | 0.88 ha | — | Liquid / sludgeInert |
| Old Quarry, Wikefield Farm | 0.85 ha | — | HouseholdCommercial |
| Beatwaste Tip | 0.85 ha | — | Industrial |
| Junction of Barrack Road and Chapeltown Road | 0.84 ha | — | CommercialInert |
| Nursery Mount Road, Hunslet | 0.76 ha | — | CommercialInert |
| Old Quarry, Wellington Hill | 0.68 ha | — | HouseholdCommercial |
| Roman Avenue | 0.67 ha | 1980 | Inert |
| Domestic Road | 0.66 ha | — | Inert |
| Highthorne Quarry | 0.62 ha | 1957 | Waste types not recorded |
| Land at Junction of Pepper Road/Pepper Lane | 0.53 ha | 1984 | CommercialInert |
| Old Quarry, Parkside Road | 0.53 ha | — | Inert |
| Kirkstall Holder Station | 0.42 ha | 1992 | CommercialInert |
| 116 Commercial Road / Kirkstall Road | 0.33 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Coghlan Bright Steel Limited | 0.23 ha | 1980 | CommercialInert |
| Harehills Depot | 0.2 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Scott Hall Road BMX Track | 0.12 ha | 1982 | CommercialInert |
| New Wortley Holder Station | 0.11 ha | 1979 | CommercialInert |
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 Leeds?
- 44 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Leeds 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 Leeds?
- 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.