From Micky Allen
Have you seen today's
Evening Standard, in the Homes and Property supplement (Wednesday 10th March 1999, pages 13) there is an article (by Keith Dovkants) on some poor guy in the Hull area.
He decided he would like to have an extension to his bungalow, and started to dig out the foundations. Instead of hitting oil, he unearthed hundreds of tons of coal tar!
Apparently his bungalow was built on the site of a disused gas works - that had closed in 1913!
You might try contacting someone like
Landmark Information Group who have a service specifically for householders called 'Home Envirosearch' It is based on their in-house GIS (Geographical Information System) which is a database of OS maps dating back to 1860
Two other places mentioned in the Evening Standard article were in Barking and Dagenham. One was a former asbestos factory near to Harts Lane, and the other was a disused tar-pit near Gurney Close.
cheers
Micky