GRANTS totalling more than half a million pounds have been handed to dozens of environmental and community projects across York and North Yorkshire.

The money has come from Yorventure, which distributes funds generated through the landfill operations of waste management and recycling company Yorwaste, including Harewood Whin near York.

The National Railway Museum in York has received £24,200 towards the conservation of a 1907 railway carriage, of the type which would have been converted for use in a First World War ambulance train.

The carriage will be showcased in the museum’s Great Hall from July 7 next year to mark the centenary of the busiest day of ambulance train traffic, which occurred during the Battle of the Somme.

Transformed to recreate the atmosphere of these trains using sound, film and replica fixtures and fittings, the carriage will tell the forgotten story of First World War ambulance trains - hospitals on wheels which transported millions of sick and injured men from the Front to hospitals across Europe, the UK and beyond.

Jane Sparkes, of the NRM, said: “The crucial role of these trains has until now been little known, but research by our curators and archivists has gradually uncovered this forgotten piece of history.

"The mass casualties of the First World War called for evacuation of the injured on a scale never seen before; this evacuation simply could not have happened without ambulance trains.”

Other recipients of grants include Wheldrake Park, which receives £24,000 towards a refurbishment, Tadcaster Swimming Pool Trust, which receives £20,000, Newton on Ouse Parish Hall, which gets £13,921 and the Friends of Acomb Wood, which gets £8,693.

Grants have also gone to Whixley & District Community Cricket Club (£15,000), Ulleskelf Multi Use Games Area (£50,000), Tockwith Village Hall Energy Project (£1,500) Stillington Play Area (£8,995) Appleton le Moors Village Hall (£2,930) Wigginton Church Hall - Boiler (£1,680) Gate Helmsley Village Hall (£14,866) and The Milton Rooms (£9,404).

Grants distributed by Yorventure are available to any community and environmental projects within a ten-mile radius of four former Yorwaste landfill sites including Caulklands, near Pickering, as well as Harewood Whin.

Yorwaste managing director Steve Barker said close to £11 million had been awarded to 677 projects since the fund was first established. "We are very proud to have been able to provide support across our operating areas.”