Landfill Check

Reading University

IndustrialHouseholdCommercial

Reading University is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Woodley, Wokingham. It received industrial, household and commercial waste between 1980 and 1990, covering about 0.37 hectares. Reference EAHLD10316, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD10316
Site nameReading University
AddressEarley
Site operatorNot recorded
Licence holderReading University
Licence issued31 December 1980
Licence surrenderedNot recorded
First waste input31 December 1980
Last waste input31 December 1990
Area0.37 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaSouth East TH
Grid reference475600, 170200

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.

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.