Ashes Clough
Liquid / sludgeIndustrialCommercial
Ashes Clough is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Lees. It received liquid/sludge, industrial and commercial waste between 1966 and 1971, covering about 1 hectares. Reference EAHLD31960, October 2025 data revision.
Full record
| EA reference | EAHLD31960 |
|---|---|
| Site name | Ashes Clough |
| Address | Springhead, Oldham, Greater Manchester |
| Site operator | WPM Rome Mill Lees |
| Licence holder | Not recorded |
| Licence issued | Not recorded |
| Licence surrendered | Not recorded |
| First waste input | 30 September 1966 |
| Last waste input | 7 September 1971 |
| Area | 1 ha |
| Gas control | Not recorded |
| Leachate containment | Not recorded |
| Licensed site | Not recorded |
| EA area | South NW |
| Grid reference | 396000, 404300 |
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.
- Commercial:
- waste from shops and offices — paper, packaging, food. Similar profile to household waste, usually less of it.
Other historic landfill sites nearby
- Land at Livingstone MillWaste types not recorded
- Land adjacent to Wood BrookWaste types not recorded
- Land at County End MillWaste types not recorded
- Springhead QuarryIndustrialInert
- Land At Zion Methodist ChurchWaste types not recorded
- Land at Grotton HollowWaste 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.