Landfill Check

Historic landfill sites in Wivenhoe, Essex

The Environment Agency records 22 historic landfill sites in and around Wivenhoe, Essex. covering roughly 98 hectares in total. The largest is Place Farm at 22.97 ha. Recorded waste ranges up to liquid/sludge waste. Data: October 2025 revision.

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

All recorded sites, largest first

SiteAreaLast inputWaste types
Place Farm22.97 ha1971Industrial
Fingringhoe Road Landfill12.36 haIndustrialHouseholdCommercial
Martell's Pit11.72 ha1987IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Martells Pit10.46 haIndustrialInert
Haven Quay7.46 haWaste types not recorded
Molar Works4.95 ha1999IndustrialInert
Rowhedge Wharf4.61 haWaste types not recorded
Vanessa Drive3.44 haWaste types not recorded
Belle Vue Road3.16 haWaste types not recorded
Wilson Marriage School2.48 haWaste types not recorded
Water Treatment Works2.04 ha1993Liquid / sludge
Martells Pit2.04 ha1993IndustrialHouseholdCommercial
Martells Pit1.99 ha1989IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Mersea Road1.75 haWaste types not recorded
The Shipyard1.63 ha1988Industrial
Martells Pit1.08 haIndustrialInert
King George Recreation Ground0.79 ha1974HouseholdCommercial
Ballast Quay Farm0.71 haWaste types not recorded
Rowhedge Wharf0.64 haWaste types not recorded
Rowhedge Wharf0.63 haWaste types not recorded
Ballast Quay Road0.53 haWaste types not recorded
Ferry Road0.44 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 Wivenhoe?
22 historic (closed) landfill sites are recorded within about 15km of Wivenhoe 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 Wivenhoe?
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.