Back Lane
IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Back Lane is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Chelmsford, Essex. It received industrial, household, commercial and inert waste between 1976 and 1985, covering about 12.79 hectares. Reference EAHLD01721, October 2025 data revision.
Full record
| EA reference | EAHLD01721 |
|---|---|
| Site name | Back Lane |
| Address | Broomfield, Chelmsford |
| Site operator | Mid Essex Gravel Pits |
| Licence holder | Mid Essex Gravel Pits Chelmsford Limited |
| Licence issued | 31 October 1978 |
| Licence surrendered | 19 September 1987 |
| First waste input | 31 December 1976 |
| Last waste input | 31 December 1985 |
| Area | 12.79 ha |
| Gas control | Not recorded |
| Leachate containment | Not recorded |
| Licensed site | Yes |
| EA area | Eastern AN |
| Grid reference | 572100, 211200 |
Source: Environment Agency Historic Landfill Sites dataset, October 2025 revision.
Boundary map
What these waste types mean
- Industrial:
- factory and process waste. Contents vary widely — some benign, some not; the site's operator and era are the clues.
- Household:
- everyday domestic refuse. Decomposes and can generate landfill gas for a few decades after closure.
- Commercial:
- waste from shops and offices — paper, packaging, food. Similar profile to household waste, usually less of it.
- Inert:
- builder's rubble, subsoil, concrete, brick. Doesn't decompose or generate gas; the lowest-concern category.
Other historic landfill sites nearby
- Belsteads FarmIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
- Cell 5, Land At Pratts Farm LaneIndustrialHouseholdCommercial
- Little Waltham RoadIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
- Broomfield and Little WalthamIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
- Mid Essex Gravel PitsIndustrialCommercial
- Hill FarmIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
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.