Otterham Landfill

Jean and I walked a path marked only by variation in the predominant flora that connects a circle of thirtynine well serviced pressure gauges housed inside ‘milton’ concrete casings. The mother of all gauges stands alone on the higher ground; a huge torch protected by a two metre galvanised fence. It flared day and night for ages explained Jean, burning off the accumulated methane gas of over twenty years of landfill well compressed below a new layer of top soil; a beacon marking the high fringe land of Rainham.

Veolia Environmental Services designate this as Otterham Landfill, ‘now closed for the reception of waste’. Locals without will nor wit to find an official waste recycling centre, still unhelpfully tip their rubbish at the gate. Earlier maps record its history as the Vineyard Chalk Pit and before that, presumably it was a vineyard (Quite rare in 1870s Kent). Today you can enter this quite secret place via a path at Vineyard Mews, through an orchard of Bramley apples. Nature is re-colonising in its usual way, with local plants that love disturbed ground. I saw that ants, badgers, rabbits and squirrels had also made it their home.

The Environment Agency helpfully record this site with all other past and current landfill, providing a clear urban fringe indicator around the perimeters of Medway and Swale.

http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?topic=waste&ep=map&x=519266.39875&y=204316.9229500005&scale=5&lang=_e&layerGroups=default&layerGroupToQuery=1&textonly=off#x=582737&y=166717&lg=1,2,&scale=6