The Borrow Pit
Liquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
The Borrow Pit is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near York, York. It received liquid/sludge, industrial, household, commercial and inert waste between 1970 and 1987, covering about 6.07 hectares. Reference EAHLD05259, October 2025 data revision.
Full record
| EA reference | EAHLD05259 |
|---|---|
| Site name | The Borrow Pit |
| Address | Sim Hills No.1 Site, Middlethorpe Grange, York |
| Site operator | North Yorkshire County Council |
| Licence holder | North Yorkshire County Council |
| Licence issued | 7 June 1985 |
| Licence surrendered | 31 December 1987 |
| First waste input | 31 July 1970 |
| Last waste input | 31 December 1987 |
| Area | 6.07 ha |
| Gas control | Yes |
| Leachate containment | Not recorded |
| Licensed site | Yes |
| EA area | Dales NE |
| Grid reference | 458000, 448500 |
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
- Sim Hills TipCommercial
- Band Ash Hill PiggeryWaste types not recorded
- Chaloners WhinWaste types not recorded
- The Borrow PitLiquid / sludgeIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
- Bond Ash Hill PiggeryIndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
- Chapmans PondWaste types not recorded
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.