Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Plymouth, City of Plymouth

The Environment Agency records 38 historic landfill sites in and around Plymouth, City of Plymouth. covering roughly 215 hectares in total. The largest is Great Trehills Farm at 77.04 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to industrial waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

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

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
Great Trehills Farm77.04 ha1993Inert
Lower Compton11.6 haWaste types not recorded
Stonehouse Lake10.96 ha1971Waste types not recorded
Honicknowle Brickworks8.62 haWaste types not recorded
Stonehouse Playing Fields8.1 ha1991Inert
Woodlands Fort Cricket Pitch Honickn8 haHousehold
Stoke School Playing Field And Allotments7.83 haWaste types not recorded
Ham6.77 haWaste types not recorded
Peverell Cricket Ground5.98 haWaste types not recorded
Off Pendeen Crescent Soutrhway5.86 haWaste types not recorded
Central Park Milehouse5.23 haWaste types not recorded
Tothill Park Recreation Ground4.96 haHouseholdCommercial
Derriford4.95 haWaste types not recorded
Eggbuckland Road Efford Adj Cemetery4.9 haWaste types not recorded
Valley View Close4.64 haWaste types not recorded
Laira Lipson College4.53 haWaste types not recorded
Embankment Road4.14 haCommercial
Victoria Park3.97 haWaste types not recorded
Radford Quarry Oreston3.53 haWaste types not recorded
School Playing Field Laira2.81 haWaste types not recorded
Blagdons Shipyard2.66 haCommercial
Crownhill2.26 haWaste types not recorded
Laira2.2 haWaste types not recorded
Former Warkham Quarry1.52 haWaste types not recorded
Crownhill Sewage Works1.5 haIndustrial
Cattledown Junction Playing Field1.41 ha1972HouseholdCommercial
Honicknowle Lane1.3 haIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Bedford Quarry Oreston A1.02 haWaste types not recorded
Allotments Embankment Road0.96 haHouseholdCommercial
Cattledown Road0.92 haWaste types not recorded
Honicknowle To March Mill0.83 haWaste types not recorded
Bedford Quarry Oreston B0.8 haWaste types not recorded
Tecalamet Marsh Mills0.76 haWaste types not recorded
Coombe Farm0.75 haHousehold
MacAdam Road0.63 haWaste types not recorded
Allern Farm0.48 ha1993IndustrialInert
Plymstock Works0.34 ha1990Inert
Severnside Waste Paper0.04 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 Plymouth?
38 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Plymouth 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 Plymouth?
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.