Withnell Quarries
IndustrialHouseholdCommercial
Withnell Quarries is a historic (closed) landfill site recorded by the Environment Agency near Blackburn, Blackburn with Darwen. It received industrial, household and commercial waste between 1980 and 1997, covering about 22.01 hectares. Reference EAHLD07696, October 2025 data revision.
Full record
| EA reference | EAHLD07696 |
|---|---|
| Site name | Withnell Quarries |
| Address | Bolton Road, Withnell, Chorley, Lancashire |
| Site operator | Not recorded |
| Licence holder | Wastedrive-Biffa Manchester Limited |
| Licence issued | 20 October 1980 |
| Licence surrendered | Not recorded |
| First waste input | Not recorded |
| Last waste input | 31 December 1997 |
| Area | 22.01 ha |
| Gas control | Yes |
| Leachate containment | Yes |
| Licensed site | Yes |
| EA area | Central NW |
| Grid reference | 363900, 423800 |
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.
Other historic landfill sites nearby
- Abbey VillageHousehold
- Higher Stanworth FarmInert
- Stanworth FarmInert
- Higher Stanworth FarmWaste types not recorded
- Star Paper MillWaste types not recorded
- Close House WoodIndustrialCommercialInert
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.