On the morning of September 28, 2023, Brits awoke to the shocking news that the iconic Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland had been deliberately felled.
Locals Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers were soon arrested and charged with criminal damage, and their trial started earlier this week.
Also known as “the Robin Hood tree” after its appearance in Kevin Costner’s 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the landmark, about 250 miles north of London, was notable for its stunning setting along Hadrian’s Wall, the defensive fortification built by the Romans across northern England some 2,000 years ago.
The movie’s director, Kevin Reynolds, called the act of vandalism “ugly,” “despicable,” and “senseless,” describing the tree as “one of the most quintessentially idyllic spots in the world” and likening its destruction to the loss of a revered monument.
On the second day of the trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Richard Wright noted how the tree had become “a famous site, reproduced countless times in photographs, feature films, and art,” the Guardian reported.
Wright accused Graham and Carruthers of showing “expertise and a determined, deliberate approach” to the felling, which one of the defendants filmed on a smartphone. “First, they marked the intended cut with silver spray paint, before cutting out a wedge that would dictate the direction in which the tree would fall. One of the men then cut across the trunk, causing the sycamore to fall, hitting the wall.” The footage was shown to the jury.
“During [their] return journey,” Wright continued, “Mr Carruthers received a video of his young child from his partner. He replied to her: ‘I’ve got a better video than that.’ Minutes later, the video of the felling of the tree was sent from Graham’s phone to Carruthers’ phone.” He added: “At the time of that text conversation, the only people in the world who knew that the tree had been felled were the men who had cut it down.”
Both men maintain their innocence and the trial continues.
On a positive note, the tree’s stump has since sprouted new shoots, offering hope for regrowth — but a full return to its iconic form is likely to take more than a century.
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