THE OPENING of the historic offices that Charles Dickens used as the setting for his classic A Christmas Carol in Malton’s quaint Chancery Lane, attracted large numbers of intrigued residents and visitors at the weekend.

It was the first stage of the ambitious plan by the Charles Dickens (Malton) Society to capitalise on the town’s close links with Dickens – a regular visitor – and to translate it into a potential major tourist attraction to boost the local economy.

For years, the offices – with their two-foot thick walls – have remained closed to the public, being used by Malton Museum as a storeroom for its artefacts.

But now the owners, the Fitzwilliam Estate, are nearing completion of a lease which will see the society take over the building and create, with modern technology, the setting of the counting house as it would have been in the days of Dickens’ legendary characters, Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit.

The opening of the building – which is more than 200 years old – gave the public the first chance to see the rooms, untouched and unchanged since Dickens visited them and penned his famous Christmas story.

It proved to be the highlight of Malton’s Victorian Christmas Weekend, which was hailed as one of the most successful festivals the town has seen for decades.

Tourists and shoppers descended on the town’s Market Place, where scores of local food stalls and rural businesses were packed and doing brisk business.

A delighted Malcolm Chalk, chairman of the Dickens Society and a leading member of Malton and Norton Business in Action, which helped mastermind the weekend, said: “We had a wonderful response from people coming round the old offices of solicitor Charles Smithson, Dickens’ friend, which he used for Scrooge’s counting house.

“A number of people joined the society as a result and I’m really confident that our aspirations to create a tourist attraction will become a reality.”

The £100,000 catalogue of ideas for the Christmas Carol centre, include rooms being lit by flickering candles and firelight, and creating an atmosphere of being dingy and cluttered, with the only picture being a dusty portrait of Jacob Marley’s Scrooge’s deceased partner.

Zoe Plummer, of Business in Action and the Ambiente tapas bar in the Market Place, was one of many traders who dressed in Victorian style to add authenticity to the weekend.

“It really was a great success. People have said they couldn’t recall seeing Malton Market Place so busy.”

A farmers’ market, horse-drawn carriage rides, steam organ, vintage farm equipment exhibition, and theatrical productions by The Nomads, and a presentation of readings of Dickens’ works were key parts of the programme.

“We brought a lot of groups together to make the weekend a success and it paid dividends. I’m sure it is a festival which will become a major part of the Malton calendar in the future.

“It proved just what Malton can achieve and how it can benefit from its history and image as a traditional market town,” said Zoe.