Landfill Check

Disused Quarry East of Lorbotle Weststeads

Liquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert

Disused Quarry East of Lorbotle Weststeads is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Rothbury, Northumberland. It received liquid/sludge, industrial, household, commercial and inert waste between 1976 and 1978, covering about 2.01 hectares. Reference EAHLD06377, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD06377
Site nameDisused Quarry East of Lorbotle Weststeads
AddressLorbottle, Northumberland
Site operatorRothbury Rural District Council
Licence holderNorthumberland County Council
Licence issued31 December 1976
Licence surrendered31 March 1993
First waste inputNot recorded
Last waste input31 December 1978
Area2.01 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaNorthumbria NE
Grid reference402900, 607100

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.
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.

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.