A group of residents in Dorset have taken action against souvenir hunters who keep taking their village sign.

They have chipped in £20 each to buy a chunk of Purbeck stone and had the name Shitterton engraved on it.

As the stone weighs well over a ton they are confident it will make future pranksters think twice before attempting to remove it.

Ian Ventham, chairman of the parish council, said: "Every two or three years somebody comes along and nicks our sign because, clearly, Shitterton is amusing.

"We think it was kids who would like to have it stuck on the wall in a den somewhere.


"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, it was gone."

Mr Ventham said it was his wife Diana's idea to carve a sign out of stone.

"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'."

Mr Ventham, a retired RNLI director, wrote to neighbours asking them to give £20 towards the cost of the new sign.

Of 50 households, well over half obliged. After being told of the plan, Purbeck district council donated an extra £70.

Mr Ventham said he felt the project was a good example of David Cameron's Big Society - local communities taking action in their own interest.

"I am not sure if he is expressly thinking about Shitterton signposts, but I think he is talking about people getting off their backsides and doing things," he added.