LONDON: Police have charged two men with criminal damage after the Sycamore Gap Tree, one of Britain’s most photographed trees was cut down in the night last September – an act of vandalism that prompted an outpouring of national sadness.
Police on Tuesday charged Daniel Graham, 38, and Adam Carruthers, 31, with criminal damage to the tree and Hadrian’s Wall, both of which belong to the National Trust, a heritage conservation charity in England.
The men, who were arrested last October and released on bail, will appear at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on May 15.
The sycamore, said to be at least 150 years old, stood at the centre of a dramatic dip in the landscape alongside the historic Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, making it a popular spot for photographers, hikers and even marriage proposals or the scattering of ashes.
The tree, which the surrounding Northumberland National Park once rated as its most photographed spot, also featured in a 1991 Robin Hood film.
The felled tree was cut up and removed by crane for storage on National Trust property, and seeds were collected from it to propagate new saplings.
A day after the incident, a National Trust manager said that the stump seemed “healthy” and felt it could possibly regrow, although it would “take a few years to develop into even a small tree and around 150 to 200 years before it is anywhere close to what we have lost”.
The stump of the iconic tree remains at the site with a low fence around it, in the hope it will regrow in time. On 9 March 2024, BBC News said the first seedlings had begun to sprout from genetic material recovered at the site.
(REUTERS)
