'Mindless' vandals have appalled a rural community by spraying offensive graffiti over some of the village’s oldest landmarks.

Residents in Tarvin were shocked to wake last Thursday morning (August 29) to discover garish blue paint daubed on two of the grade II-listed Roman bridges and surrounding structures at Hockenhull Platts, as well as various trees, a children’s play area and a signpost.

The area is one of the village’s most popular beauty spots, favoured by ramblers and cyclists who use the quiet route to get from Tarvin to Christleton.

But the historic sandstone bridges, which are more than 500 years old and could be classed as medieval, now have the word ‘Weed’ scrawled over them, leaving villagers living nearby in shock that their peaceful community has been targeted by reckless vandalism.

Cllr Phil Miles from Tarvin Parish Council described the offenders as ‘mindless’.

“It’s just awful. Tarvin doesn’t get much in the way of crime, other than the odd break-in but never graffiti,” he said.

“I’ve lived here 20 years and never seen anything like this.

“We have informed the police about it and it has also been recorded as a heritage crime.

“A big concern we have is that by removing the graffiti, it could damage some of the stone work – it’s 500 years old at least. “This is a well known tourist attraction and this doesn’t give a very good impression to the area at all.

“We are just hoping against hope that this is just a one off that we can deal with and nothing like this happens again.”

And concerned resident John Threadgold added: “These malicious vandals have disfigured these historic bridges.

“We now have a disfigured, unkempt  beauty spot which many people in this  area enjoy with their children and dogs.

“This disgraceful graffiti has to be removed as soon as possible and make sure  this little haven is kept tidy.”

A Cheshire West and Chester Council  spokesperson said: “The Roman Bridges  are listed structures so we are treating  their cleaning in the way we would treat  Chester’s city walls.

“This work is much more careful and  delicate than normal graffiti cleaning so  we are looking at a number of ways to  carry out this work.

“The work has to be specially approved  by a stonemason so as yet there is no date  for the work to begin, however, it will be as  early as possible.

“It is a top priority for us to clean it as  carefully as possible.”