Coppy Clough Sewage Works
SpecialIndustrialCommercialInert
Coppy Clough Sewage Works is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Church, Lancashire. It received special (hazardous), industrial, commercial and inert waste between 1983 and 1989, covering about 3.9 hectares. Reference EAHLD06857, October 2025 data revision.
Full record
| EA reference | EAHLD06857 |
|---|---|
| Site name | Coppy Clough Sewage Works |
| Address | Off Dunkenhalgh Way, Church, Accrington, Lancashire |
| Site operator | Not recorded |
| Licence holder | Sir Alfred McAlpine and Sons Limited |
| Licence issued | 1 August 1983 |
| Licence surrendered | 17 January 1990 |
| First waste input | 31 December 1983 |
| Last waste input | 31 December 1989 |
| Area | 3.9 ha |
| Gas control | Not recorded |
| Leachate containment | Not recorded |
| Licensed site | Yes |
| EA area | Central NW |
| Grid reference | 374200, 429400 |
Source: Environment Agency Historic Landfill Sites dataset, October 2025 revision.
Boundary map
What these waste types mean
- Special:
- the licensing-era term for hazardous waste — asbestos, chemicals, oils. The category that most warrants a closer look.
- 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.
- Inert:
- builder's rubble, subsoil, concrete, brick. Doesn't decompose or generate gas; the lowest-concern category.
Other historic landfill sites nearby
- Coppy Clough Sewage WorksWaste types not recorded
- Rishton Paper MillLiquid / sludgeIndustrialInert
- Hyndburn River Valley adjacent to Parks PlantationInert
- FarholmesLiquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdInert
- Far Holmes TipIndustrialCommercial
- Sharnhall ReservoirInert
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.