Burying Scrooge

The church in the below photos is St Chad's Church in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. St Chad’s dates from 1792, and the church’s distinctive round profile (you can just see this in the second picture below), makes it somewhat of an eye-catcher. As interesting as the church is however, it is an oddity in the church’s small graveyard that really caught my attention.

Wandering St Chad’s graveyard the observant may notice a rather plain grave stone bearing the name Ebenezer Scrooge (the fictional character from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol). Scrooge’s gravestone was apparently created for the 1984 film version of this story (starring George C Scott as Scrooge), which was filmed in Shrewsbury. It seems that a weathered gravestone in the graveyard was re-purposed for the film with Ebenezer Scrooge’s name being engraved into the stone. In the last picture below it is just possible to discern at the bottom of the stone, the faint markings from the original inscription, presumably commemorating the previous owner of the gravestone. Once filming had ceased the stone was left in place and now probably confuses the occasional visitor to the graveyard who now wonders if Ebenezer Scrooge was perhaps a real person?

George C Scott who portrayed Scrooge in the 1984 film was rather famous during his career. Scott’s most notable performance was probably playing the title character from the 1970 film Patton, for which he was awarded, but did not accept, an Academy Award for Best Actor. Scott died in 1999 and given his fame one might expect that Scott would have a lavish grave, however it seems to be that he actually resides in an unmarked grave in the Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. I cannot find any clear explanation why Scott’s grave is unmarked, but it does seem rather ironic that he rests without a memorial stone, whilst one of the fictional characters that he portrayed has a memorial!

It does make me wonder if any other fictional character has a burial plot in a graveyard? If you know of one, let me know in the comments section.

St Chad's in Shrewbury, Shropshire.

Scrooge's grave is the horizontal stone at the bottom right of the photo. 

Here lies Ebenezer Scrooge.

Pictures: Shropshire (October 2016).

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The Home of the Daleks in Dorset

The unusual looking ruins and caves in the below pictures are all that remains of the old quarry site at Winspit, which nestles on the cliff side near Worth Matravers in Dorset. Winspit quarry was one of the numerous quarries on this section of coastline, which once provided highly prized stone for prestigious building projects in London. Winspit quarry was in use until around 1940, when the site was used as part of the south coast's naval and air defences during World War II. Today the quarry and the cliff side is open for curious people to explore and climb.

If Winspit quarry looks familiar to you it may be that you have seen it before in an episode of Dr Who.

The quarry was used in the Dr Who adventure The Underwater Menace in 1967, which saw the second Dr Who (Patrick Troughton) visit a deserted volcanic island and encounter a band of survivors from Atlantis who had a plan to raise the island from its watery grave.

The fourth Dr Who (Tom Baker) also visited Winspit quarry in 1979 in The Destiny of the Daleks. In this episode Winspit quarry portrayed the planet D-5-Gamma-Z-Alpha (also known as Skaro), which is the home world of Dr Who's arch enemy, the Daleks. The quarry's ruined buildings provided a suitable representation of what an abandoned Dalek city may look like and these three stills (one, two, three) show Tom Baker in action at Winspit quarry.

So if you ever wanted to visit the Dalek home world, just head to the Dorset Coast, it is a lot easier than trying to travel through space and time!

First look at Winspit quarry. 

The ruins of the quarry buildings.

The quarry.

Exploring the inside.

Pictures: Dorset (May 2015).

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Dropping in on the Skywalkers

In 2002 I took a trip to Tunisia and while I was there I visited the Berber town of Matmata. Matmata is a small settlement in the south of the country where some of the local residents still live in traditional underground troglodyte dwellings. A troglodyte dwelling is essentially a large pit dug into the ground (a courtyard of sorts), off of which separate caves are dug which serve as rooms for the family living there. These underground residences provide the benefits of being cool during the hot desert days, and offer insulation and warmth during the cool desert nights. It seems that this permanent underground settlement in Matmata was not widely known about until 1967, when intense rainfall (lasting 22 days) caused a number of the troglodyte homes to collapse and forced some of the residents to seek help from the Tunisian authorities.

The troglodyte homes of Matmata did not stay secret for long however, and one of these was used as the location for Luke Skywalker's home on the planet of Tatooine in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). This film set is now a hotel (The Hotel Sidi Driss), and when you visit you can still see traces of the Lars' moisture farm on Tatooine where Luke Skywalker lived with his aunt Beru and uncle Owen.

Interesting, this troglodyte house was only used for the interior shots of Luke's home, the exterior shots in the movie where filmed around 100 miles away to the north west, near Chott El Jerid. The "igloo" that formed the surface part of the Lars' moisture farm can apparently still be found in the middle of nowhere, on the old salt lake flats near Chott El Jerid.

The home that Luke shared with his aunt and uncle is not the only part of the Star Wars films that were shot in Tunisia, it seems that Tunisia abounds with abandoned film sets that portrayed locations on the fictional planet of Tatooine, from both A New Hope and The Phantom Menace. So if you ever visit Tunisia, your inner geek may get the chance to visit Obi-Wan Kenobi's hermitage, Mos Espa, Toshi Station or even the settlement where Anakin Skywalker lived as a slave with his mother during The Phantom Menace.

The remains of the set of Luke Skywalker's house (the Lars' moisture farm):

Inside a troglodyte dwelling:

The view above ground:

Pictures, Tunisia (December 2002).

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Finding Sweethaven

If you have ever wondered where Popeye’s home of Sweethaven is located, then you need look no further than the Mediterranean Island of Malta. Sweethaven (or Popeye Village as it is known) is located on the north western coast of Malta in Anchor Bay. The village was originally built as the set for the 1980 Robin William’s film "Popeye", and the village now continues life as a tourist attraction. The village of Sweethaven consists of about 20 wooden buildings and presents a very striking sight when seen from a distance. Up close however, the appearance is somewhat different with most of the buildings being very rundown and in a poor state of repair, giving the village a much more sinister air.

Popeye as a character began life in a comic book way back in 1929 and, like any good comic book character, some of his adventures over the years have included Fortean themes. One of Popeye's cryptid encounters that caught my attention was his encounter with the "Desert Yeti". The Desert Yeti is a hairy orange beast with an appearance that is vaguely reminiscent of the "Honey Monster" of Sugar Puff cereal fame. The concept of a Desert Yeti is not one that I had come across before, and perhaps Popeye is the first person to have reported an encounter with such a beast?

Pictures, Malta (2010).

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