The boss of Great Yarmouth's Pleasure Beach has offered a cash reward to help catch vandals who tore down a photography display on the attraction's sea wall.

Albert Jones was so upset about the destruction of the work of pioneering photographer Peter Henry Emerson he is offering a £500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprits.

%image(14429573, type="article-full", alt="Part of a display celebrating the work of Peter Henry Emerson has been destroyed in Great Yarmouth - a town working out the best way to protect its Banksy graffiti art.")

The panels were discovered ripped from the wall and laid out on the promenade by a dog walker Ann Guyton early on Wednesday (August 18).

"It is just mindless," he said.

%image(14429574, type="article-full", alt="Gloomy skies in Great Yarmouth reflect local disappointment after panels relating to a photography exhibition were ripped down.")

"So many people have walked along there and said how much they enjoyed them.

"It is absolutely terrible. We really value it and we were pleased the Arts Council contacted us and wanted to do something.

"It brightens the area up, the same as Banksy has done."

%image(14426578, type="article-full", alt="The Great Yarmouth Photography Festival focuses on the work of Peter Henry Emerson.")

Mr Jones said he was checking CCTV at Sara's Tearooms and that there were plans to put lighting along the walkway to make it more pleasant in the evenings.

%image(14429575, type="article-full", alt=""The Great Wall of Emerson" spans from behind the Pleasure Beach roller coaster to the log flume.")

The installation, The Great Wall of Emerson, is one of a six locations included in the Emerson festival which culminates in a photography competition with the winning entries due to go on public display later this year.

Emerson was born in Cuba and was a noted scholar and athlete.

Later he abandoned his career as a surgeon to become a photographer and writer. He argued the case for realism in photographs and between 1885 and 1895 captured images around Great Yarmouth and the Norfolk Broads.

Norfolk Police said the vandalism happened between 9pm on Tuesday and 8am on Wednesday, when suspects damaged nine black and white photographs printed on di-bond aluminium which were on the back wall of the Pleasure Beach.

A spokesman said the photographs had been ripped from the wall and damaged beyond repair.

Police are investigating and anyone who may have witnessed the incident, or has information about those involved should contact PC David Greenwood at Op Solve on 101 quoting crime reference 36/60433/21.

To find out more about the Emerson festival and to enter the competition visit www.utternonsense.co.uk.