Historic ruins in Maldon have taken a battering by vandals.

Maldon historian Stephen Nunn said he is “angry and saddened” by recent damage to the remains of a former leper hospital site.

St Giles’ Hospital, off Spital Road, was probably founded by Henry II in the twelfth century for Maldon residents suffering from leprosy, which back then was a common disease across Europe.

In 1481 the hospital was granted to BeeleighAbbey and later closed with the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536.

It became part of a barn at Spital Farm and it was only when the dilapidated barns were demolished in 1913 that the remains were rediscovered.