Historic landfill sites in Wakefield
The Environment Agency records 26 historic landfill sites in and around Wakefield. covering roughly 226 hectares in total. The largest is Walton Colliery Reclamation Site at 84.17 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to special (hazardous) waste. Data: October 2025 revision.
Recorded landfill boundaries around Wakefield (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000).
All recorded sites, largest first
| Site | Area | Last input | Waste types |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walton Colliery Reclamation Site | 84.17 ha | — | Inert |
| Welbeck Quarry | 23.68 ha | 1986 | Liquid / sludgeIndustrialInert |
| Pugneys | 16.91 ha | — | HouseholdCommercialInert |
| Disused Workings - Wakefield Power Station | 15.94 ha | 1987 | Liquid / sludgeIndustrialInert |
| Rooms Farm | 11.24 ha | 1992 | IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert |
| Briary Close | 9.89 ha | 1981 | SpecialLiquid / sludgeHousehold |
| Ferry Lane | 8.28 ha | 1972 | Liquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercial |
| Westgate Brickworks | 6.89 ha | 1986 | IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert |
| Pugneys Landfill | 6.22 ha | 1980 | Inert |
| Lingwall Nook - East Ardsley Sidings | 6.16 ha | — | Inert |
| Red Beck | 6.12 ha | — | Inert |
| Walton Colliery | 5.9 ha | — | CommercialInert |
| Heath Common | 4.58 ha | — | Commercial |
| Walton Colliery | 3.34 ha | 1985 | CommercialInert |
| Land within works complex at British Jeffrey Diamond | 2.89 ha | 1992 | CommercialInert |
| Disused Railway Cutting | 2.78 ha | 1992 | HouseholdCommercialInert |
| Disused Railway Cutting | 2.74 ha | — | CommercialInert |
| Bicc Wire Limited | 2.15 ha | — | IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert |
| Windhill Quarry | 1.7 ha | 1969 | HouseholdCommercial |
| Welbeck Quarry | 1.61 ha | — | Liquid / sludgeCommercialInert |
| A650 Ardsley Interchange | 1.19 ha | — | Inert |
| Land at Durkar | 0.8 ha | 1981 | CommercialInert |
| Wakefield 'B' | 0.7 ha | — | Waste types not recorded |
| Land Near Wakefield Power Station | 0.32 ha | — | Commercial |
| NEGAS, Wakefield Holder Station | 0.08 ha | — | IndustrialCommercialInert |
| Wakefield Holder Station | 0.08 ha | 1977 | 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 Wakefield?
- 26 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Wakefield 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 Wakefield?
- 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.