A much beloved stop off for tourists visiting Shrewsbury, Scrooge's grave has been vandalised. The grave is a remnant of the filming of A Christmas Carol which celebrates 40 years this year. We talk to local historian and town guide: Nigel Hinton about the vandalism.
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00:00Here in St Chad's churchyard, lovely churchyard, lovely church and one of the landmarks is
00:05Ebenezer Scrooge's grave. Nigel you're a local historian, you actually do Christmas carol tours
00:12don't you? Yes I do and it's 40 years ago that the film was made in Shrewsbury, used a lot of
00:20the places where there are sets, we take visitors around and of course we usually end up here at
00:28Scrooge's grave. You were actually here with the BBC just a few days ago weren't you? I was here on
00:33Wednesday with them and we were looking again looking at various aspects and places that were
00:39associated with the film. Yeah. It was directed by Clive Donner, I don't know if you know him,
00:45but he was a, he'd produced, he directed about 40 plus films made for tv because this was made for
00:54tv. Yeah. And he'd made What's New Pussycat and films like Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.
01:01Yeah. So he's quite an accomplished director. Well it didn't look like that last time I saw
01:06the stone and it didn't look like that last time you saw it so apparently this was Saturday night
01:11and it's been vandalised. Your thoughts on you know what you see, I mean I'm from Wolverhampton
01:18and I'm absolutely gutted I brought my children here to see it and family. What's your thoughts
01:23Nigel? My thoughts are I'm very sad for the visitors that come to see it. Obviously it was a
01:30prop in the film, it's an art, it's a reused gravestone, it's not of huge value. You know when
01:38the vandals break into the church isn't they steal a fiver and damage about, costs about ten
01:44thousand pounds to replace. Yeah. That's serious. Hopefully this won't, if it is replaced, will
01:52not cost that much. Yeah. Would you like to see it just the original stone kept but just kind of
01:58put back together as best can be? I think we all like to do that. I used to restore old cars and
02:04try and keep as much original as you can but it isn't always possible. Yeah. So there will be some
02:11skilled craftsmen who can do something with it. And as a town guide that does tours here, a number
02:18of different tours, not just the Christmas Carol tour, it is fascinating for people isn't it? You
02:23know they do seek it out. The first time I came here with my children, like I said, the first
02:27time I came to Shrewsbury we came to view it. So it is an important visitor attraction isn't it? It
02:32is an important visitor attraction and it's important because it brings visitors into the
02:37church as well and to the Quarry Park and the Dingle which is all associated with this area.
02:44Yeah. So hopefully we'll get it back as best as can be but I'm sure you're as sad to see
02:52as I am to see it in this state. I'm disappointed really, as I say, for the visitors and the people
03:00that would have come and seen it. Paradoxically, as happens, I was just talking to the person from
03:08the church and they were saying they've had more visitors since the vandalism than before and
03:14that's a sad reflection really. Yeah. Sad reflection. Well thank you for your insight
03:20on that Nigel. Thank you sir. Thank you for coming over. Thank you.