Brownfield land in Bolton: 149 sites on the register
Part of development land in Greater Manchester — 2,321 sites across 10 councils.
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council has published 149 brownfield sites in Bolton on its statutory land register — land the council itself has assessed as suitable for housing. Together they cover about 213.6 hectares.
Rank these sites with constraints netted off →
Largest sites on the Bolton register
| Site | Hectares | Max dwellings | Planning status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land At Former Horwich Loco Works, Horwich, Bolton | 76.70 | — | permissioned |
| Higher Swan Lane Mixed Use Allocation | 11.55 | — | not yet |
| Former British Aerospace, Oxhey Lane, Horwich, BL6 4BS | 7.05 | — | not yet |
| Church Wharf | 5.79 | — | permissioned |
| Hoover-Candy Site, Breightmet Fold Lane, Breightmet, BL2 6PS | 4.60 | — | not yet |
| Derby Street/Rothwell Mill | 3.95 | — | not yet |
| Beehive Mills | 3.63 | — | not yet |
| Burnthwaite Old Hall, Old Hall Lane, Bolton, BL6 4LJ | 3.38 | — | permissioned |
Source: Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council brownfield land register, published via planning.data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are the council’s own. No site in Bolton states a dwelling capacity on the register, so no capacity figure is shown.
What a brownfield register actually is
Every local planning authority in England is required to keep a register of previously-developed land it considers appropriate for residential development. Part 1 lists all such sites; Part 2 sites carry permission in principle.
What it is not: an entry is not planning permission, and it is not an offer to sell. The council assessing a site as suitable says nothing about whether the owner wants to sell it or what a scheme would actually get approved. England has no zoning — the Local Plan and the Use Classes Order decide what is achievable.
The registers are public and free. They are underused mainly because each authority publishes its own separately, in its own format, so comparing more than one area by hand is painful.
Working the Bolton register properly
- Net off the constraints first. Green belt, Flood Zone 3 and listed buildings kill more register sites than anything else. Check before you fall in love with a line on a map.
- Treat the dwelling figure as the council’s opinion. The council has published no dwelling capacity for Bolton, so the yield here is yours to establish.
- Price it off recorded sales. HM Land Registry Price Paid gives you what actually sold nearby; work the residual land value from there rather than from an asking price.
- Find the owner. Register sites are rarely advertised. Ownership status is listed, and Land Registry title records do the rest.
Questions this page answers
- Brownfield land register Bolton
- Development land in Bolton
- How much brownfield land is there in Bolton?
- Where can I build houses in Bolton?
- Bolton land availability assessment
GoSiteHunt is an advertising and analysis platform, not a real estate agent or planning consultancy. Everything here is indicative screening from public data — not a valuation, not planning advice, and never a substitute for the council’s own records or your own professional advisers.