Landfill Check

Timber Beach

IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert

Timber Beach is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Sunderland. It received industrial, household, commercial and inert waste between 1987 and 1988, covering about 6.12 hectares. Reference EAHLD06582, October 2025 data revision.

Full record

EA referenceEAHLD06582
Site nameTimber Beach
AddressWessington Way, North Hylton, Tyne and Wear
Site operatorNot recorded
Licence holderSunderland Borough Council
Licence issued18 November 1987
Licence surrendered7 December 1988
First waste input1 August 1987
Last waste input7 December 1988
Area6.12 ha
Gas controlNot recorded
Leachate containmentNot recorded
Licensed siteYes
EA areaNorthumbria NE
Grid reference436900, 558300

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.