SUNDAY May 19 2002 is a golden day for Yarner Wood and English Nature. It will be 50 years since the woodland site near Bovey Tracey was one of the first six places in England to be declared as a National Nature Reserve.

To commemorate this special event English Nature commissioned the locally based MED Theatre Company to prepare a stage adaptation of Eden Phillpotts' novel 'The Forest on the Hill'.

The novel is set in and around Yarner Wood on the eastern slopes of Dartmoor, and has been dramatised for performances in local villages. The centrepiece of the 50th anniversary celebrations will be the two final performances held in a marquee inside Yarner Wood itself including one on Sunday May 19, the exact day of the golden anniversary.

The adaptation has been made by local playwright Mark Beeson, MED Theatre's artistic director; music by local Dartmoor composer Gillian Webster.

l Dates: May 11, Manaton Parish Hall, 7.30pm; May 15 Ilsington Parish Hall 7.30pm; May 16 Lustleigh Village Hall, 7.30pm; May 17 Moretonhampstead Parish Hall, 7.30pm; May 18 and 19 Yarner Wood, 3pm.

For further details or to book call 01647 221384 or email [email protected]">[email protected]. To book tickets for the Yarner performances, ring 01626 832330.