A CAST of more than 100 people from all over the Ribble Valley will perform a cycle of mystery plays to mark a special anniversary in Whalley.

It is 700 years since monks settled in the area, and throughout June the mystery plays will be staged within the historic Whalley Abbey site.

The plays form just part of a much larger celebration which sees 1996 marking a coincidence of anniversaries.

Some evidence claims a church presence in Whalley as early as 596AD, and certainly when the Cistercian monks founded the Abbey in 1296 the Christian Church in Whalley was already centuries old. So, with the coincidence of the 700th anniversary for the Abbey, the 200th for the Methodist Local preachers, the 150th of the parish school and the 70th of the building of the Roman Catholic Church of English Martyrs, there is a call for a year of Christian celebration.

Some of the events planned already include an opening weekend with flower festival, exhibition and organ recital on the weekend of May 25 and 26.

The mystery plays are from June 8 to 16, evenings of poetry readings and music will take place in September, a dance and spiritual celebrations follow in October and the final closing service is on November 3.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.