Landfill Check

Little Whessoe Farm

Liquid / sludgeHouseholdCommercialInert

Little Whessoe Farm is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Darlington, Darlington. It received liquid/sludge, household, commercial and inert waste between 1977 and 1983, covering about 3.71 hectares. Reference EAHLD06174, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD06174
Site nameLittle Whessoe Farm
AddressBurtree Lane, Darlington, County Durham
Site operatorJ W Webster and Company
Licence holderJ W Webster and Company
Licence issued13 May 1977
Licence surrendered22 March 1989
First waste input13 May 1977
Last waste input31 December 1983
Area3.71 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaDales NE
Grid reference427700, 518700

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.
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

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.