VANDALS have wrecked a map cabinet at the Pan Tod Beacon viewing point and memorial on the summit of Ruardean Hill.

Maurice Bent, spokesman for the Friends of Pan Tod Committee, said the culprits, believed to be a gang of young men, also left condoms lying around and used a car to plough up the grass around the beacon.

He said: “It is completely senseless. They have smashed the glass, which has been up there for years.

“We get a lot of visitors up there and this just does not look good.

“We have reported it to the police and they have promised to keep an eye on it.”

The Pan Tod memorial is on the summit of Ruardean Hill, at 951 feet, the highest point in the Forest of Dean

The Memorial commemorates five Ruardean miners who lost their lives working underground in 1951, Henry Edwards, James Roberts, George Parsons, John Roberts and Leslie Jones.

The origin of the name Pan Tod is unclear.