POLICE say “considerable damage” has been done to a historic Barrow arch after a vehicle hit it.

Officers believe a HGV may have struck the Abbey Approach arch, off Abbey Road, in Barrow.

The driver made off without reporting the incident, which was brought to the attention of the police just before 9.30am on Monday.

Furness Abbey Fellowship chairwoman Gill Jepson described the news as “a real shame”.

She believes the arch to be from a more recent period to the medieval abbey, but she added: “Nevertheless, it’s still important that we keep it. That’s not to say it shouldn’t be protected, because it’s an icon, it should be preserved.

“It’s obviously one of the approaches to the abbey so it’s an important asset.

“We do get a lot of traffic down to the abbey which shouldn’t come to the abbey, and I think that’s because of satnavs.

“It’s not clearly signposted and we’ve had problems before, with lorries being directed down there. There was one time when there was some damage done to some of the railings.”

Mrs Jepson hopes the fellowship’s newest fundraising project – a bid to find £5,000 for better signage for the abbey – may in some way help prevent further similar problems.

The campaign will be launched at the group’s third annual Medieval Fair at the abbey on Saturday September 5.

With more regular and clear directions to the landmark, Mrs Jepson hopes, those mistakenly sent there may be made aware of where they are headed in more time.

Of the project to provide visitors with better instructions for reaching the site, she added: “One of the consistent complaints about the abbey is that people from out of the district don’t know where to find it, don’t know where it is. We are currently collecting comments from visitors about how hard it is to find if you aren’t local.

“So one of the things we’re investigating is how to get more signage out there and where would be the best places for distribution.”

Anyone with information about the damage to the arch is asked to contact Cumbria police on 101.