THE CHAGFORD group behind a major theatrical project backed by the National Trust is 'stunned' by the lack of support from its local arts organisation.

'Daughters of Elvin' fears its production, which was set to involve a director from the Royal Shakespeare Company, will have to be scaled down dramatically following South West Arts rejection of a £25,000 bid for regional arts lottery funding.

But South West Arts claims there was simply not enough money to go around, with eight times more applications than it could give money to.

The project, which involves workshops including a children's day and performances at Castle Drogo and Buckland Abbey throughout the summer, was commissioned by the National Trust after seeing a video of the theatre company's work.

'We were asked to put in a proposal for some gigs at Castle Drogo and the manager of the property told us to go for it,' said co-founder of Daughters of Elvin, Katy Marchant.

'So we included a circus of fantastical medieval beasts, larger-than-life human characters, trapeze artists and lively dance music played on authentic early instruments.'

Formed in 1996 with the aim of presenting early music in a new and exciting way 'Daughters of Elvin' received financial support from the National Trust for artists fees, set building and publicity.

The production 'Garden of Earthly Delights' will call on the talents of 14 artists including dancers, musicians, actors, sculptors and designers, the majority of whom are local.

Katy said having only performed 'small gigs' since the company was formed three years ago, the interest in this project was a major coup.

'The nationwide publicity is running into thousands — we are stunned that South West Arts does not want to support this project which is helping a local arts organisation and bringing art to local people.'

She believes the funding organisation is under the misunderstanding that the event will attract more tourists than locals.

'Daughters of Elvin' said the show will go on but extra funds are desperately being sought to bring the project up to the standard it deserves.

An appeal is going out for local businesses to sponsor various aspects of the show such as a dancing bear, a giant stilt dragon, a famous singer or director from the RSC.

'Our funding application was to cover the cost of a director, rehearsals which are due to start in April, artists fees, materials and labour for costumes and masks,' said Katy. 'If we can find another £10,000 we can probably do what we planned.'

Gillian Taylor from South West Arts said the application scored moderately and had there been fewer applications it might have been successful.

'Three quarters of the projects, including this one, met the criteria and scored moderately,' she said. 'Unfortunately there was not enough money to go around.'

She said the fact that tourists would make up a proportion of the audience was not a reason for refusing it.

'South West Arts could possibly look into other funding sources to help the project,' she added.