THE trust that owns the derelict former Quakers ground could raise millions if its members decide today to sell it for housing.

Feethams, home to Darlington Football Club for more than a century until the Quakers moved to a new stadium in 2003, is now a dilapidated, vandalised wreck.

But experts say the four-acre town centre site is prime for residential development.

Julie Wallin, director of Carver Commercial property agents, said some land in Darlington was selling for more than £1m an acre.

"Feethams is ripe for development and it would be a multi-million pound development," she said.

Interested developers have already approached the ground's owner, Darlington Feethams Cricket Field Trust.

The trust's management committee is made up of members of Darlington Cricket Club, which plays on adjacent land at Feethams.

Cricket club chairman Brian Johnson said the committee would consider "all options" at tonight's meeting.

He said: "We haven't come to any decisions at the moment and we are going to the meeting - or certainly I am - with an entirely open mind.

"If we were to come into considerable sums of money, that would enable us to develop the cricket facilities at Feethams very greatly."

Feethams was bought by Edmund Backhouse and Sir E D Walker, president of Darlington Cricket Club, in 1903 and placed in the ownership of a private perpetual trust.

The trust's deed of foundation dictates that it must be used for the playing of cricket or any other sport authorised by the cricket club - but a caveat allows part of the ground to be sold.

The land does not have residential permission, but a Darlington Borough Council spokesman said there was nothing to stop an application being submitted.

Councillor Ron Lewis, Darlington Mayor in 2003/2004, said: "I used to love Feethams when it was a football ground. It's always been a sporting arena. I would like to see it continue as that."