Garnet Fold Farm
Liquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Garnet Fold Farm is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Atherton. It received liquid/sludge, industrial, household, commercial and inert waste between 1966 and 1978, covering about 10.12 hectares. Reference EAHLD31886, October 2025 data revision.
Full record
| EA reference | EAHLD31886 |
|---|---|
| Site name | Garnet Fold Farm |
| Address | St Helens, Bolton, Lancashire |
| Site operator | Westhoughton Urban District Council |
| Licence holder | British Coal |
| Licence issued | 1 June 1990 |
| Licence surrendered | Not recorded |
| First waste input | 31 October 1966 |
| Last waste input | 8 April 1978 |
| Area | 10.12 ha |
| Gas control | Not recorded |
| Leachate containment | Not recorded |
| Licensed site | Yes |
| EA area | South NW |
| Grid reference | 368400, 406500 |
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.
Other historic landfill sites nearby
- Bolton-Kenyon Junction RailwaySpecialIndustrialHouseholdCommercial
- Bolton-Kenyon Junction Railway LineInert
- Disused Railway between Deane Church Lane and Hulton LaneSpecialIndustrialHouseholdCommercial
- Land at Deane Church LaneHousehold
- Disused Railway between Deane Church Lane and St. Helens RoadWaste types not recorded
- PiggeryInert
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.