Residents of the county of Northumberland (in the north-east of England) are in mourning. They mourn a venerable figure, a splendid sycamore maple which was cut down on the night of September 27 to 28 in a clear act of vandalism. The hardwood tree was planted between two hills, at the foot of Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans in the 2nde century to protect themselves from the tribes populating the north of the country, in what is now Scotland. The tree had resisted bad weather and the madness of men for more than two centuries. His haughty figure passed into posterity after appearing in the film Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991), with Kevin Costner. Hikers and amateur photographers loved the dramatic effect evoked by its thick foliage against a backdrop of tormented skies.
Throughout the country, the reactions of sadness and anger were commensurate with the attachment he aroused. Bouquets, a flower or a note were left at the stump, the media even filmed live broadcasts there. “People are horrified, everyone, people from Newcastle or rural areas, are shocked that someone could commit such a brutal act against nature,” responded Helen-Ann Hartley, the Anglican bishop of Newcastle, the nearest town. Although the police have since questioned a teenager, then an older man, and seized a chainsaw from a farm near the wall, they refuse to give more details on the ongoing investigation and the possible motives for this ecocide.
The sycamore maple was a point of pride for the inhabitants of the county, once an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, then a former industrial bastion, now one of the poorest regions in the United Kingdom. He “brought joy to visitors. People got married nearby, others asked for their ashes to be scattered at his feet,” also noted Brian Blessed, who played Lord Locksley in Robin Hood.
This act of vandalism is ” intolerable. I have not felt such emotion since the loss of the venerable frame of Notre-Dame in Paris. testified author and historian Dan Jackson, originally from Northumberland. On a more positive note, Andrew Poad, head of the National Trust (the British charity responsible for the preservation of historic monuments and sites), estimated that the strain remained “healthy” and that shoots could reappear.
Woodland cover among the lowest in Europe
The emotion of the British says a lot about their attachment to trees: they occupy a special place in Celtic tales and myths, notably the oak, tree of the Druids, symbol of power and door to the other world. Many post their “tree of the day” on social networks, as they travel. BBC Radio 4 spent the month of June collecting listener testimonies about their “favorite tree” and the Woodland Trust, the main association dedicated to the conservation of Britain’s forest heritage, organizes an annual competition for the most beautiful specimen in the country.
You have 38.1% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.