MED Theatre at Moretonhampstead has received a new grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to provide the Young Roots programme for an exciting 18-month project encompassing The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Last Wolf on Dartmoor.

Facilitated by MED Theatre’s creative practitioners, the project will enable young people to learn more about Dartmoor’s local history and ecology through the eyes of a long lost animal, the wolf, last sighted on Dartmoor in 1780, and the legends it inspired.

Young people from across Dartmoor and the surrounding area will have the opportunity to take part in a series of creative projects, including the creation of a radio play, a stage play, part of a community play and a short film, all inspired by wolves, their role in Dartmoor’s past and the myths behind the Victorian dectective story The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Research will begin this summer with field trips to Dartmeet and Castle Drogo, the locations of the last two wolf sightings, plus a visit further afield to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust in Berkshire.

Trips to Buckfastleigh and Hound Tor will give the participants the chance to experience locations important for the creation of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

A variety of arts workshops will also accompany the project, with opportunities for young people to learn new skills in physical theatre, radio, film, music, dance, sculpture and puppetry.

Though they are now extinct, wolves and wild dogs still live on in Dartmoor’s mythology, forming the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. Working alongside heritage professionals (including cultural environmentalist and historian Dr Tom Greeves), participants of The Last Wolf project will gain a deeper insight into Dartmoor’s forgotten wildlife and its impact on our wider cultural heritage.

Commenting on the award, MED Theatre’s artistic director Mark Beeson said: ‘We are delighted to have received funding to enable us to carry out an ambitious project that integrates historical and ecological heritage.’