Reacting to the guilty verdict, the National Trust conservation body said the “needless felling” of the tree had “shocked people around the country and overseas”.
“It was felt particularly deeply here in the northeast of England, where the tree was an emblem of the region and the backdrop to many personal memories,” said a spokesperson.
The pair drove to the site near Hexham in Graham’s Range Rover and felled the tree on the night of September 27, 2023, slicing through the trunk with a chainsaw in “a matter of minutes”, said prosecutor Richard Wright.
“Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover and travelled back towards Carlisle,” where they lived, he added.
The pair were jointly charged with causing £622,191 ($1.4 million) of criminal damage to the tree and £1144 ($2570) of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, an ancient Roman fortification stretching from northwest to northeast England.
The sycamore was a symbol of northeast England and a key attraction photographed by millions of visitors over the years, winning the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year in 2016.
Efforts are under way to see if it can be regrown from its stump or seeds.
The National Trust, which owns the wall and the tree, said it has grown 49 saplings from the sycamore’s seeds, which will be planted this winter at sites across the UK.
An over 2m piece of the felled tree now forms the centrepiece of an art installation on permanent display at a visitor centre near where it stood.
People can see and touch part of the trunk, and “can once again gather, sit, and reflect”, according to the visitor centre.
– Agence France-Presse
