Video: Gnome goes in contest win

Mother and daughter Shirley and Felicity Bowes said goodbye to a rock steady old friend when they let the wrecker's hammer swing for the sake of some "gnome" improvements.

Shirley and Felicity sacrificed garden gnome Malcolm and their beloved laptop computer in order to win £5,000 worth of bathroom furniture.

The prize, courtesy of Q A Kitchens in Wellington, was offered in a competition run by radio station Telford FM which asked listeners to say just what they would be prepared to see smashed up in order to win a fabulous new bathroom.

Shirley and Felicity, from Trench, Telford, thought long and hard before reluctantly offering up the computer, along with the concrete gnome Shirley bought when Felicity was born and named Malcolm.

Telford FM breakfast show presenter Paul "Shuttsie" Shuttleworth, who took a lumphammer to Malcolm and the laptop outside Q A Kitchens yesterday, said Shirley thought she might have twins and so when Felicity came into the world on her own she decided to get her a companion.

He said: "She bought Malcolm the gnome to keep Felicity company as she was grow up.

"Malcolm wasn't the usual hollow, plastic gnome you see in most people's gardens. He was solid concrete and it took me ages to smash him up.

"The look on Shirley and Felicity's faces was incredible."