Historic landfill sites in Rayleigh, Essex
The Environment Agency records 8 historic landfill sites in and around Rayleigh, Essex. covering roughly 38 hectares in total. The largest is Hambro Hill at 12.17 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to liquid/sludge waste. Data: October 2025 revision.
Recorded landfill boundaries around Rayleigh (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).
All recorded sites, largest first
| Site | Area | Last input | Waste types |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hambro Hill | 12.17 ha | 1992 | IndustrialHouseholdInert |
| Hambro Hill No. 1 | 10.05 ha | — | Inert |
| Devenish Limited | 5.71 ha | — | Liquid / sludge |
| Hambro Hill | 4.62 ha | 1966 | HouseholdCommercial |
| Hambro Hill | 3.08 ha | 1958 | HouseholdCommercialInert |
| Eastwood Rise | 2.04 ha | 1972 | Inert |
| Blounts Farm | 0.47 ha | — | Household |
| Rayleigh Urban District Council Depot | 0.09 ha | — | Waste 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 Rayleigh?
- 8 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Rayleigh 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 Rayleigh?
- 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.