Article: As publsihed on
thisissouthdevon.co.uk 28th April 2010
Vandals unleash damaging attack on historic battery.
Parts of Brixham's wartime heritage centre have been destroyed in a vandalism spree.
Brixham Battery Museum suffered damage costing thousands of pounds over the weekend, thanks to a series of bonfires and attempts to dismantle a gun emplacement.
Four huge bonfires, measuring eight feet in diameter, were set alight on top of and around the museum building, ruining its £3,000 waterproof coating.
Some of the fires were started over the gun races, which resemble railway lines, dating back to 1850. The intense heat of the blaze has pitted the once well-preserved ironwork.
The vandals also filled padlocks around the Scheduled Monument site with glue, dismantled a bank retaining wall which forms part of the fabric of the battery and attempted to dismantle the museum's Bofors gun.
They dug a big pit below one of the gun floors, leaving empty beer cans and cannabis smoking paraphernalia inside.
Brixham Yacht Club's wooden signal hut, which is also at Battery Gardens, was also damaged during the weekend.
Brixham Battery Heritage Group chairman Phil Trayhorn said he cleared up the remains of two fires on Saturday and another two on Monday.
He said: "I think they used wood taken from the yacht club hut, as well as wood from the scrub, to make the fires.
"Three years ago during one of our conservation projects we removed the old waterproof membrane from the museum's roof and replaced it with a new one, which cost £3,000. They set fire to it and now it's all bubbled and the rain will come through again.
"They dug rocks and blocks out of the retaining wall to make a circle around the fire in front of the gun floor, which exposed the gun races which are now all pitted.
"The pit they dug is huge," he said. "It's been cut and dug out of solid rock, so they must have had pickaxes and other earth-moving equipment to do it.
"It took two of us to put some of the rocks back in. Why they did it, I've no idea. I can't image why you would dig such a huge hole in such a spot.
"It looks like it's going to be worked on further, because there's some edging work been done.
"They've put superglue into some of the locks into our buildings and now we can't open them.
"The Bofors gun is in two sections, the barrel section and the mount section.
"They dislodged the mount from the barrel of the gun and laid it on its side. It takes a lot of hard work to do that.
"They couldn't dislodge the final pin because they didn't have the right cutting equipment, but they nearly succeeded.
"We've managed to put it back. We had to use steel rods to do it.
"I know it sounds daft, but it's almost as though they dismantled the mount in the hope of putting in the pit they've dug. The mount is like a compartment; you could actually get in it so it would be a uniquely weird hideaway, but it takes big strong people to do something like this; they aren't children."
Mr Trayhorn said motorbikes had also been spotted in the grounds over the past few days.
Brixham police sergeant Dave Casley said he was stepping up patrols in the area.
"If anybody sees or hears anything going on up there, please ring us and let us know," he added.
