The public recreation or play ground was located on the division of land on Alnwick Moor as agreed by the Duke of Northumberland and the Freemen, ‘according to the stipulations of the Common Enclosure Act, as appropriated forever as a place for public amusements ‘ in 1760. At one stage in the 1800s it was suggested that in the Inclosure Act the Recreation ground should have been allotted to churchwardens and overseers and then a move to make the Local Board of Health the trustees likewise was defeated and the original status quo remained.
In 1902 discussions which were to prove fruitless took place to consider providing a recreation ground in the south of the town.