It was the most photographed and famous tree in the north of England, and its 35-meter-high majesty gave balance and contrast to the view of the long wall that the Emperor Hadrian ordered to be built to protect the confines of the Roman Empire from barbarian invasions. Workers at Northumberland National Park were shocked to discover that the 300-year-old Sycamore Gap had been brutally felled from its base on Thursday.
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested as the main suspect in an act of clear vandalism. “He was deliberately cut down,” assured the national park administrator. “The Northumberland National Park Authority can confirm that, unfortunately, the famous Sycamore Gap It fell during the night,” the police confirmed. The residents of the area did not hear anything during the night, due to Storm Agnes, with winds of more than 130 km/h, which shook the entire area. Investigators point out that the culprit was perfectly aware that, in those weather conditions, it was very difficult for anyone to hear the sound of a chainsaw.
The sycamore maple was one of the most beloved trees of the British, and it used to receive special mentions in the recommendations of all travelers visiting that area. In a country with special devotion to nature and plants, such brutal news has caused sadness and anger. The tree had resisted the inclement weather for three centuries, with the same strength as the kilometers of Roman wall next to it. The maple was also famous because it was part of the scene of Robin Hood, prince of thieves, the film starring Kevin Costner in 1991.
In May 2003, the tree was almost seriously damaged when a helicopter crashed thirty meters away. It carried the landscaper Alan Titchmarsh and a film crew making the documentary The British Isles: A Natural History.
Tony Gates, director of Northumberland National Park, he told the British newspaper Guardian that the center’s staff had cried after arriving in the morning and finding the famous tree cut down. “Everyone is in shock. “It is one of the most emblematic landscapes in the country,” he added.
The maple was voted England’s Tree of the Year in 2016, and came fifth in the European Tree of the Year competition the following year.
The only thing that remains of the maple is the base. Experts believe that the tree, properly pruned, will be able to revive and new shoots will emerge, but warn that its solemn image has been lost forever.
The emperor Hadrian (76-138 AD) decided, with the construction of the wall, to bet more on the defense of an empire too vast to protect itself from new enemies than on new conquests. “That line of defense became the emblem of my renunciation of the policy of conquest,” says the character imagined by Marguerite Yourcenar in her immortal novel. Memoirs of Hadrian. Twenty centuries later, the Hadrian’s Wall It continues to travel from coast to coast across northern England over 75 Roman miles (117.5 kilometers). The solemnity of the work inspired George Martin for the Ice Wall that separates the Seven Kingdoms from the wilds in the series Game of Thrones.
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