TWO hundred million year old dinosaur footprints in Barry are being damaged and are in danger of being lost forever - a local historian has warned.

Karl-James Langford has said that Barry's past is in danger of being lost unless more care is taken of sites such as The Bendricks, Barry.

Mr Langford, Manager for Archaeology Cymru, regularly leads groups on tours of The Bendricks to looks at the dinosaur footprints.

On a recent visit he said he was horrified to find damage being done to some of the prints.

"I took a group of ten students of Archaeology Cymru to give them the tour of the Dinosaur footprints.

"With all my enthusiasm and acting skills, I could not hide my horror with the damage deliberately being caused.

"We examined one print that had been filled with plaster of Paris, and on a visit to inspect the damage with another group later that same day, somebody had deliberately tried to smash it out with a breeze block damaging the 200 million year old print in the process."

As well as damage to the footprints the group also found evidence of a fire that had been started at the site and litter strewn around.

"One fire on the prints and these 200 million year old time-capsules will be gone for ever," said Mr Langford.

"There are only five spots of genuine prints on this planet, other sites are usually reptile prints of crocodiles and the like.

"We in Wales are about to lose them."