LONDON (Reuters) - Heat lamps seized by police in raids on local cannabis farms will be put to good use by third tier English soccer club Notts County to help their own - legal - grass grow at the Meadow Lane stadium.

A spokesman for County, founded in 1862 and the oldest professional football club in the world, said police had donated the confiscated equipment that would previously have been crushed.

Students from Nottingham University were helping to design and build wheeled rigs to house the lamps that should be ready for the rigors of next winter.

"They will help the grass grow down the near side of the pitch where the stand does not let the light in during the winter," the spokesman said, adding the savings for the club would amount to tens of thousands of pounds.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Mark Meadows)