A HISTORICIAL Bromsgrove gate, which dates back to the 1650s, has been hit once again by vandals.

The lych gate, situated at St Johns the Baptist Church on Kidderminster Road, was damaged between 2pm on Friday, August 29 and 9.30am on Saturday, August 30.

Police believe that someone used small granite stones, which were nearby, to thrown at the roof of the lych gate at the front of St John’s, causing the tiles to break.

Dennis Norton, who led the original fundraising efforts to restore the lych gate, said: “It is just a shame. There must have been two or three of them it couldn’t have been one person who has done that.”

After the refurbishment of the gravestones belonging to the famous railwaymen, Thomas Scaife and Joseph Rutherford, left over granite stones were used to fill two nearby holes.

Since the weekend's damage, the stones have now been removed by Mr Norton who believes these were used to aim at the roof.

He also added that tiles had been donated by a former Stoney Lane resident and homeowner and that repair work would be carried out for free by Banner’s, hopefully this weekend.

In 2010, the gate was previous vandalised – stones were removed from the walls around one of the gates’ pillars and they were then pushed down the famous ‘48 steps.’

At the time almost £3,000 was raised to repair the gate, a grant was made from the county council, donations were given from the Court Leet and The Bromsgrove Society and a town resident also donated £1,000 to the cause.

Anyone with information about the damage is asked to call police on non emergency number 101, quoting incident 0205-S-310814 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.