MINDLESS vandals have damaged an historic wartime fort leaving it’s owners disheartened.

Beacon Hill Fort, in Harwich, was wrecked by a group of yobs on Tuesday.

They threw concrete blocks down a 100-year-old staircase, broke signs around the fort, damaged fencing and threw a pile of logs around.

It comes after volunteers in the town have given up their spare time to rejuvenate the derelict site.

Paul Valentine, who co-owns the site with Barry Sharp, said this was a particularly bad incident.

He said: “Normally people break in once or twice a week just to explore the inside.

“But this is the first time we have had a malicious attack in a couple of months.

“They have just gone mad causing trouble.

“It’s quite malicious to destroy the fort just for the sake of it.

“They even broke the fence down to get in to the fort and they stacked up a lot of our chairs by the front gate.”

Mr Valentine believes there were about three people who were involved with the attack because it would have been too heavy to move concrete slabs alone.

He added: “A concrete slab was chucked down the stairs so we think it would be more than one person who was involved as it takes about two people to lift the slabs.”

Mr Valentine said he was upset because volunteers have been clearing up the fort’s overgrown weeds, vandalism, and getting surveys done on the buildings for months.

Once the work is complete the owners want to create an attraction at the site, which has been closed to the public for decades, and encourage visitors to the area