Watergarth Quarry
IndustrialHouseholdCommercialInert
Watergarth Quarry is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Knottingley. It received industrial, household, commercial and inert waste between 1975 and 1992, covering about 3.31 hectares. Reference EAHLD05263, October 2025 data revision.
Full record
| EA reference | EAHLD05263 |
|---|---|
| Site name | Watergarth Quarry |
| Address | Lunnsfield Lane, Fairburn |
| Site operator | D Noble Limited |
| Licence holder | D Noble Limited |
| Licence issued | 10 May 1979 |
| Licence surrendered | 14 July 1994 |
| First waste input | 1 January 1975 |
| Last waste input | 31 December 1992 |
| Area | 3.31 ha |
| Gas control | Not recorded |
| Leachate containment | Not recorded |
| Licensed site | Yes |
| EA area | Ridings NE |
| Grid reference | 447400, 427900 |
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
- Fairfield QuarryIndustrialInert
- Lunnsfield QuarryCommercial
- Brotherton Ings Ash Disposal SiteWaste types not recorded
- Nr Coppering KilnsCommercial
- Mile Gap QuarryHouseholdCommercial
- Wheldale LaneCommercial
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.