A national trust is seeking to recruit the help of Moray residents who may have information on playing fields for which records have been lost.
The Carnegie UK Trust have joined with Fields in Trust in a campaign that hopes to identify local authorities and community groups who received grants totalling £200,000 between 1927 and 1935.
The value of the grants given by the Carnegie Trust between 1927 and 1935 represents the equivalent of £10million. The cash was used to create almost 900 playing fields throughout the UK – with a key condition that these newly created playing fields were to be “protected in perpetuity”.
It has emerged that the precise location of the playing fields was not always recorded – now the Carnegie UK Trust and Fields in Trust have launched a campaign to find the missing playing fields – and when they do ensure that they remain protected for local communities under the terms of the original grants.
The #FieldFinders campaign page has an easy to complete online form where individuals, community groups and local authorities can submit information about a potential Carnegie playing field in their area.
A spokesman for the Carnegie Trust UK said: “We have already done some of the legwork with a pilot project to examine the original Carnegie playing field sites that can be located and protected.
“In 2014 the Trust embarked on a revived, 21st century partnership with Fields in Trust with the first objective of the pilot project setting out to establish a much stronger understanding of the operation of the original playing fields grant programme in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
“Fields in Trust continues to play a central role in protecting and improving outdoor recreational spaces throughout the UK. It currently protects in perpetuity nearly 3000 playing field sites.”
Now two development prizes of £5,000 each are being offered to local groups who provide information about their local Carnegie playing fields.
Information can be lodged with Fields in Trust via their website where details of can be found about playing fields in Buckie, Burghead, Garmouth, Hopeman, Lossiemouth, New Elgin and Portknockie on which more local information is required.