Landfill Check

Abbey Farm

Liquid / sludgeIndustrial

Abbey Farm is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Saffron Walden, Essex. It received liquid/sludge and industrial waste between 1986 and 1990, covering about 0.51 hectares. Reference EAHLD01767, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD01767
Site nameAbbey Farm
AddressDuxford Road, Ickleton
Site operatorNot recorded
Licence holderCiba-Geigy Plastics
Licence issued22 May 1986
Licence surrendered25 January 1991
First waste input22 May 1986
Last waste input31 December 1990
Area0.51 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaCentral AN
Grid reference548600, 245300

Source: Environment Agency Historic Landfill Sites dataset, October 2025 revision.

Boundary map

What these waste types mean

Liquid / sludge:
liquid wastes and sludges, such as sewage sludge or industrial effluent. Can be mobile in groundwater, so worth understanding.
Industrial:
factory and process waste. Contents vary widely — some benign, some not; the site's operator and era are the clues.

Other historic landfill sites nearby

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.