Prop Ebenezer Scrooge gravestone used in A Christmas Carol film destroyed

A prop gravestone for Charles Dickens's character Ebenezer Scrooge which appeared in the 1984 film A Christmas Carol has been destroyed.

The inscribed stone has been in the grounds of St Chad's Church in Claremont Hill, Shrewsbury, since filming was completed and it became a tourist attraction.

The headstone was vandalised between Thursday and Sunday, West Mercia Police said.

Pictures showed it toppled over and smashed into at least two pieces.

The movie, which was largely filmed on location in Shrewsbury, starred George C Scott as Scrooge.

After going to sleep on Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, who try to persuade him to change his ways.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge what will become of his life if he does not change, eventually taking him to a cemetery where Scrooge brushes snow from a neglected gravestone, revealing his name.

The revelation causes Scrooge to vow to turn his life around.

'Hugely disrespectful'

Shrewsbury is discussing what should be done with the "hugely popular" stone, town clerk Helen Ball said.

"There's not much to see other than broken bits of the gravestone," she said.

"You can't see that it says Ebenezer Scrooge at the moment because it's so damaged. It's hugely disrespectful."

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Calling for poetic justice if the vandal is caught, she added: "If the ghosts of past, present and future would like to visit [the vandals] in the middle of the night and drop them and break them in pieces, I think that would be a perfect punishment."

(c) Sky News 2024: Prop Ebenezer Scrooge gravestone used in A Christmas Carol film destroyed