Illegal detectorists sought for damage to Roche Abbey

Roche Abbey was founded by Cistercian monks in 1147

Illegal metal detectorists are being hunted by police over a spate of criminal damage to a Grade II-listed medieval abbey.

Ground workers found six holes dug in the grounds of Roche Abbey, in Maltby near Rotherham.

South Yorkshire Police said it thought the damage occurred between 11 and 18 December.

No CCTV is available so police have asked for anyone with information to call 101.

The abbey was founded by Cistercian monks in 1147. It was pillaged in the 16th Century after Henry VIII dissolves England's monasteries between 1536 and 1541.

In the 1770s the ruins became the centrepiece of formal gardens designed for the Earls of Scarbrough by landscape architect Lancelot Capability Brown.

The gardens were dismantled and it was returned to medieval abbey ruins in the 19th Century, and after World War One was part of a public works programme for the unemployed.

English Heritage has been responsible for the site since 1984.