Landfill Check

Rishton Railway Cutting

IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert

Rishton Railway Cutting is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Rishton, Lancashire. It received industrial, household, commercial and inert waste between 1987 and 1989, covering about 5.08 hectares. Reference EAHLD07596, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD07596
Site nameRishton Railway Cutting
AddressSpring Street, Rishton, Lancashire
Site operatorRishton Urban District Council
Licence holderBorough of Hyndburn
Licence issued10 April 1987
Licence surrendered28 February 1989
First waste inputNot recorded
Last waste input31 December 1989
Area5.08 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaCentral NW
Grid reference372500, 430900

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.
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.