Landfill Check

The Airman Public House

IndustrialHouseholdInert

The Airman Public House is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Shefford, Central Bedfordshire. It received industrial, household and inert waste between 1953 and 1971, covering about 3.25 hectares. Reference EAHLD00811, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD00811
Site nameThe Airman Public House
AddressMeppershall, Near Henlow, Bedfordshire
Site operatorF W Farnsworth Limited
Licence holderNot recorded
Licence issuedNot recorded
Licence surrenderedNot recorded
First waste input31 December 1953
Last waste input31 December 1971
Area3.25 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteNot recorded
EA areaCentral AN
Grid reference515600, 237400

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.
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.