Shitterton villagers buy 'theft-proof' sign

A village sign has been stolen so many times that residents have clubbed together to buy a stone version cemented in to the ground. Households in Shitterton, near Bere Regis, Dorset contributed £20 each to the new sign after repeatedly falling victim to pranksters. Volunteers then arranged a truck and crane to manoeuvre the stone into place.

Ian Ventham, 62, a retired RNLI director, who arranged the whip-round, said: "It was my wife's idea to carve it out of stone. We have lived here for the last 20 years and during that time the sign has been nicked at least three times. We think it was kids who would like to have it stuck on the wall in a den somewhere because its quite an interesting sign.



"I don't think it was malicious, they just did it for fun, but it was exasperating for us. We would get a nice new shiny sign from the council and five minutes later, you’d turn your back and it was gone. Not having the signpost could make life difficult by confusing delivery drivers.

"We thought let's put in a ton and a half of stone and see them try and take that away in the back of a Ford Fiesta." In the Domesday Book, Shitterton is recorded in Norman French as Scatera or Scetra, which translated means a little town that is on the stream of a midden or sewer.