Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Saffron Walden, Essex

The Environment Agency records 19 historic landfill sites in and around Saffron Walden, Essex. covering roughly 72 hectares in total. The largest is Hinxton Landfill at 21.66 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to liquid/sludge waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

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

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
Hinxton Landfill21.66 haInert
Bordeaux Farm12.87 haHouseholdCommercialInert
Rectory Farm7.8 ha1980Inert
Middleton Aggregates Ltd - Hinxton Quarry6.75 haWaste types not recorded
North Hinxton Landfill6.75 haWaste types not recorded
Shire Hall Farm3.1 ha1993Inert
Home Farm2.49 ha1982Waste types not recorded
Home Farm2 ha1982Inert
Thaxted Road1.74 ha1971HouseholdCommercial
Chalk Pit1.57 ha1975IndustrialInert
Pen Farm1.09 haHouseholdCommercial
Rookery Lane1.08 haInert
D Haird & Co Ltd - Old Chalk Pit0.9 haWaste types not recorded
Home Farm0.65 ha1982Inert
Abbey Farm0.51 ha1990Liquid / sludgeIndustrial
Littlebury Chalk Pit0.49 ha1982Inert
Ciba Tip0.35 haLiquid / sludgeIndustrialInert
Hadstock Road0.2 ha1958HouseholdCommercial
Cogmore Hills0.2 haHouseholdCommercial

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 Saffron Walden?
19 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Saffron Walden 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 Saffron Walden?
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.