A grade one listed building has been damaged by people jumping off its 16th century brickwork.

Eastgate House on Rochester High Street was damaged after being jumped off by freerunners, who use buildings and objects in their landscape for a form of urban acrobatics.

The sport sees people take a creative journey to get from one spot to another - instead of avoiding objects by walking around them, they use objects as platforms to create a quicker route.

The Elizabethan town house, built in the late 1590s by Sir Peter Buck, Clerk of the Cheque at Chatham Dockyard, was damaged externally after youngsters were seen jumping off raised beds on to the house’s brickwork.

Medway Movement freerunners practicising their hobby

A Medway Council spokesman said: “There was a problem with young people freerunning at Eastgate House and jumping off the raised beds on to the house’s brickwork.

"The brickwork is really delicate and expensive to repair and as they were jumping on to it bits of brick were falling off, which could also have been dangerous.

“We know these young people were not doing this to be destructive.

"All the historic walls in Rochester are fragile and shouldn’t be used for free-running and to give credit to these young people, they have taken this message on board and have stopped free-running at Eastgate House.”