February 25, 2015
Lost playing fields
88 years ago, Carnegie UK embarked on an ambitious programme to create new playing fields across the country. Community groups and local councils were given funding (£10m in today’s money) and 900 playing fields were established – the only condition being that the playing field had to remain in perpetuity. A great concept but with one major flaw – no one kept a note of where they were. Memories fade, local councils reorganise and community groups come and go. You may have a Carnegie field on your doorstep and if you think you do, they’d like to hear from you.
25/2/15
The Carnegie UK Trust and Fields in Trust are today launching our new #FieldFinders campaign to find the UK’s lost playing fields. We hope that you will be able to help.
Between 1927 and 1935 the Carnegie UK Trust gave grants worth £200,000 – the equivalent of around £10 million today – to create nearly 900 playing fields across the UK. These grants were given to local councils and community groups and a key condition of the grants was that the newly created playing fields were to be protected in perpetuity.
However, the precise location of these playing fields was not always recorded. Now, the Carnegie UK Trust and Fields in Trust have launched a new campaign to find the missing playing fields and ensure that they remain protected for local communities to enjoy today and in the future.
Our #FieldFinders campaign page has an easy to complete online form where anyone who has any extra information about a potential Carnegie playing field in their area can share it with us. There are development prizes of £5,000 each up for grabs for these identified protected fields so do tell us all about them.
We hope that you can help us with the campaign. We ask you to:
1. Share the details of the #FieldFinders campaign with any of your colleagues, stakeholders or community networks who might wish to get involved.
2. Visit the #FieldFinders campaign page to submit any information you might have about a Carnegie field, or to correct the information we currently hold.
3. Visit the #FieldFinders campaign page and download the report of our 2014 pilot project, which identified the first 14 Carnegie playing field sites. Case study reports on each of these sites can also be downloaded.
If you think you can support the #FieldFinders campaign or would like to get involved in any other way please get in touch – we’d be delighted to hear from you.