HEATHER BIRKETT: Hello, and welcome to the National Trust
Podcast. I'm Heather Burkett, Garden and Outdoor Manager for
the National Trust.
Today, we journey into a story that begins with a tree. No
ordinary tree, but one that stood majestically in a gap
between the hills. A tree so iconic, it became a symbol of
the landscape itself.
On the 28th of September 2023, the world reacted with shock and
sorrow to the news that the Sycamore Gap tree had been
felled overnight.
Over the past year, we've had behind-the-scenes access to the
people closest to this story to uncover how this crisis
unfolded, what happened next, and why it's meant so much to so
many.
As I sit with a cuppa, I can't help but reflect on the
headlines that echoed around the globe. This one says, Sycamore
Gap, iconic tree seen lying next to Hadrian's Wall after being
felled.
Another declares, famous Sycamore Gap tree found cut down
overnight. And one particularly poignant headline, the last time
I visited Sycamore Gap, I never imagined I would never see it
again.
I start my journey in December 2023, just over two months after
the felling, to try and understand the impact of this
loss firsthand.
We've come to Northumberland. We're surrounded by green
rolling hills, which rise gently up and then drop away sharply,
giving the whole landscape a sense that it's been tilted on
its side.
It feels remote, other than a few cottages and the occasional
sound of a tractor or a car, and this fantastic stone wall. It's
been here for 1900 years, Hadrian's Wall is a real feature
of the landscape.
So we've reached a gap between two hills. At the bottom of the
gap, there's this fenced-off enclosure which surrounds the
stump that used to be the Sycamore Gap tree. And I'm
hoping to meet... Andrew and Luke here today who are going to
tell me a bit more about what happened.
LUKE STRASZEWSKI: Hi, I'm Luke. I'm one of the ranger team up
here on the Hadrian's Wall estate.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Hi, nice to meet you.
ANDREW POAD: My name's Andrew Poad. I'm general manager for
Northumberland Coast and Hadrian's Wall country. And as
you can hear in the background, I've got my dogs with me today.
So I've got Goose who's whining.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Hello Goose.
ANDREW POAD: He's only eight months old and Archie who's much
older and just sat quietly in the background.
HEATHER BIRKETT: So why do you think the tree was so iconic?
ANDREW POAD: It was a recognised landmark prior to its appearance
in Prince of Thieves back in 1991, that was the launch of its
career. It was referred to locally as the Kevin Costner
tree because of the film. And then my belief is with the
advent of social media, it became that symbol that
everybody wanted to capture for their Instagram moment. And in
so doing, became emblematic of this part of the world.
HEATHER BIRKETT: As well as finding fame in the Hollywood
blockbuster Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, the tree was also
awarded the title. English Tree of the Year, in 2016 by the
Woodland Trust, a further testament to its popularity.
We have a fenced off area here. It's about three metres square.
And in the centre, there is what I can only describe as a
significantly large tree stump. Luke, tell me what's happened
here.
LUKE STRASZEWSKI: The tree was a pretty striking part of the
landscape. It was around 15 metres tall, but it had a good
canopy. It was in good health. This sadly was felled overnight
in an act of vandalism and the fence is up now round to protect
the stump in the hopes that we'll get some regeneration.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Andrew were you the first to get the call when
this happened?
ANDREW POAD: Yeah the National Park are based at the Sill which
is just within sight of where we are now. Their staff spotted
there was something missing on their way into work so I got a
call from them. Initial reaction was it was a hoax because we've
had hoaxes in the past. And then we had had Storm Agnes the night
before.
The initial thought was that it's somehow blown down, but
then very quickly they managed to get the National Trail Ranger
on site who was able to clarify that it had actually been cut
down. So that shifted things considerably from a natural
accident to a deliberate act.
HEATHER BIRKETT: And it didn't take long for the news to
spread.
ANDREW POAD: Within the hour, the whole world knew because it
hit social media, my work channels, my personal channels,
everything started lighting up in front of me.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Luke, you came down here? And found a felled
tree. What happened next?
LUKE STRASZEWSKI: Our first priority was to make sure that
the site was safe because the tree had fallen onto the north
side and it was hanging up in the air. So the first thing we
needed to do was make sure that it wasn't shifting, that it
wasn't a risk to the public. So we cordoned off the area just to
make sure no one could get too close to it.
And at that point, obviously, our thought turned to what can
we do to preserve the tree? Over the next couple of days we
collected cuttings, we collected seed with the hope that we can
get some regeneration and so that we can hopefully get a new
Sycamore Gap tree.
HEATHER BIRKETT: The seeds and cuttings were immediately sent
on to the National Trust Plant Conservation Centre, a
specialist plant nursery. But there was still the pressing
matter of what to do with the tree.
ANDREW POAD: It was apparent to us, to everybody really, that we
needed to come up with a plan to remove the tree effectively.
HEATHER BIRKETT: The team then began preparing the site for the
tree's removal. But as Luke explains, there were a few
challenges to overcome.
LUKE STRASZEWSKI: So the first issue we had with it is the tree
had fallen onto Hadrian's Wall itself, and so we needed to do
what we could to preserve the UNESCO World Heritage Site. That
meant we were quite limited in our options. That meant we
needed to lift it off the Wall. So that meant we were going to
have to get a crane in.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Bringing a piece of machinery that size
into the gap was a first.
LUKE STRASZEWSKI: We are quite fortunate in that the tree was
used as a filming location for Robin Hood and a road was put in
that meant that we could get it quite close. But it was very
tricky. Sections of the tree had to be removed bit by bit and
they had to be held back as well to make sure that they didn't
roll or fall in any way.
We used the crane to lift it out and then we moved all of that
wood onto a trailer and that was taken away to another location.
It was quite a challenge. We had the world's media sat on the
little hill to the south of us. So not only were we doing
something totally unprecedented, we'd never done before, but we
had all the cameras pointing at us while we were doing it. So
that was a bit of a tense few hours.
HEATHER BIRKETT: On Friday the 13th of October, the tree was
carefully lifted off Hadrian's Wall and covertly transported to
a top secret location within the National Trust. But as a
sycamore is part of the Acer family, the team needed to act
quickly.
The clock was ticking the moment it was felled, as the sugars
within the wood could quickly lead to fungi and decay. To
preserve it as best as possible, the tree was put under the care
of a specialist team until a decision could be made on its
future.
I can see some items left at the base of the tree. Some flowers.
Homemade cross?
LUKE STRASZEWSKI: A lot of people have got a real
connection with Sycamore Gap. It's been a part of the local
community. People had proposals here. Everyone comes out here
for a picnic. People have left memorials and mementos to loved
ones who've passed away here And Sycamore Gap is just a part of
their lives..
ANDREW POAD: Having worked with it over these last 30 years, I
definitely saw how important it was to people, but I think I
hadn't appreciated the reach of that.
JUDITH WARD: It's been there all my life. You look in the gap. Oh
there's a tree. Look at all them people standing around the tree.
Look at them all come to see it, take the pictures, get their
selfies.
My name is Judith Ward and I am one of the workers and front of
house supervisor at the Twice Brewed Inn. The pub itself is
situated right on the Roman Wall alongside one of the largest
tourist destinations in England.
And then that morning my husband rang me and said the tree's down
and I went what do you mean? He says, the tree's down.
I went, no. So I jumped back in my car and I could see the cut
end of the tree and I stopped the car and I took a picture and
I put it in our group chat and then the picture started coming
in online and it's just senseless. It stood there
through the test of time.
It stood through many a storm, the harshest of weather
conditions and... My brother proposed there and it just seems
unfathomable. It's just altered the landscape forever.
HEATHER BIRKETT: The global response to the felling of the
tree has been heartfelt and touching. And in the days
following its fall, the tributes and messages came flooding in.
MARK ROBINSON: The sycamore of Sycamore Gap, more than just a
tree. It's a part of our identity, a symbol of pride and
belonging for the North East. From badges on school uniforms
to the backs of joiner's vans, it's a part of our everyday
life, whether we visit it or not.
A place of deep personal connection, of landmarks in our
lives, of romantic proposals and poignant farewells, of memories
and sandwiches shared with those we love, or of solitude and
reflection, of peace, recovery and hope. For some, its loss
lays bare the vulnerability of nature itself. My name is Mark
Robinson.
And I am an Experiences and Partnerships Curator for the
National Trust based up in the North East. I was asked to
review and collate the responses that were coming in from the
public, people's responses on social media, but in particular
the responses that people had shared in the memory room in the
exhibition at The Sill.
The memory room was a kind of a pop-up, impromptu place for
people. To share their memories of the tree, it felt important
to find a way to somehow capture that. Some people wrote long
stories, some people wrote poems, some people drew
pictures.
I think the thing that struck me the most was, particularly from
school children, that there was a huge amount of hope. There was
a lot of references to this tree will come again or we will not
forget you. It was a really humbling experience really to
spend the day reading all of the responses but also to kind of
remind yourself of just how important places can be.
HEATHER BIRKETT: And while Mark and his team were sifting
through the responses from the public, the staff at the
National Trust Plant Conservation Centre were working
against the clock.
CHRIS TRIMMER: Once material has been cut off the tree, it is
dying. So we need to get in there as soon as possible to do
our work.
I'm Chris Trimmer, I'm the Plant Conservation Centre Manager and
I look after all the rare and unusual plants in the National
Trust. I actually found out that the tree had been cut down from
our national press team. I had a phone call and essentially we
just started all the prep work behind the scenes.
To move plant material we had to issue what's called a plant
passport, did that straight away. One of our gardens
consultants were actually on site within sort of day, day and
a half afterwards. And they sent material down to us through the
post they sent first class and it arrived here nine o'clock on
Saturday morning.
We asked for seed which is one of the easiest methods of
propagation but also cuttings doing grafting budding from the
same sort of material. So by Saturday five o'clock everything
was propagated and it's all gone quite well so far.
We've got 21 cuttings, we've got five budded trees, we've got 15
grafted trees. And we've sown four seed trays so far of seeds.
But we don't know what's going to happen. But the stump that's
been left behind will probably grow as a multi stem tree. But
it'll never look the same as it did. And it'll be another two,
three hundred years before it looks good.
HEATHER BIRKETT: And then all their efforts paid off. They
successfully propagated cuttings and cultivated seeds, creating a
whole new generation of Sycamore Gap trees. The first of these
made a special journey to London in May, where it was put on
display for all to see in the National Trust Garden at the
Chelsea Flower Show.
The young seedling was placed into the Garden by
seven-year-old Charlotte and Dame Judi Dench, who
affectionately named it Antoninus, after Emperor
Hadrian's adopted son, inspired by the location of the Sycamore
Gap tree.
Charlotte and her parents, Andy and Louise, travelled down from
their home in Northumberland.
LOUISE: Well, I grew up in Hayden Bridge. Which is, what,
maybe five miles from the gap. When we found out the day it
happened, we were both at work and Charlotte was at school, and
that night went for a drive along just to see if it was
true.
And it was just so strange not seeing that tree there. It was
quite emotional. Wasn't it, when you find out and you think,
that's just a tree. Why am I getting upset over a tree? But
it's strange how a tree up in Northumberland is all over the
world. It's made such an impact on everyone.
I just remember Charlotte was saying to me one day, oh, I've
got to do this with the school, write a poem about Sycamore Gap.
HEATHER BIRKETT: A competition was set up, inviting pupils from
Henshaw Primary School, the closest school to Sycamore Gap,
in which pupils were invited to draw a picture of the tree and
write a short... Poem about what it meant to them and it was
Charlotte's poem which won.
CHARLOTTE: I went to see Hadrian's Wall and I saw a tree.
It was a mindful tree. It was a mindful famous tree. It was a
mindful famous historical tree. It was a mindful famous
historical magnificent tree. It was a mindful, famous,
historical, magnificent, welcoming tree. I really hope
Sycamore Gap goes back. When I go and see the tree, it brings
back lots of memories.
HEATHER BIRKETT: After the show, the seedling was returned to the
Plant Conservation Centre, where it continues to grow alongside
its siblings until they are ready for planting. The first
successful sapling has been gifted to His Royal Highness The
King. In honour of Celebration Day, a day dedicated to
remembering those no longer with us. This special tree will be
planted in Windsor Great Park for all visitors to enjoy.
It's now the beginning of July, ten months after the felling,
and hopes of any regrowth at the stump are starting to fade.
But at various sites in Northumberland, the first
artworks, are about to go on display. These are five prints
by Shona Branigan, who is known for her evocative tree prints.
The prints have been commissioned by the National
Trust as a creative response to the public's suggestions. This
collection, lovingly titled Heartwood, is designed to
reflect the intricate shape and essence of the tree trunk.
The five prints will be showcased together at the
Queen's Hall Hexham and then at the The Baltic Art Gallery in
Newcastle.
Then, at the end of July, I get a call from Andrew Poad, General
Manager at Hadrian's Wall, with the news that we have all been
hoping for.
ANDREW POAD: We've just heard from our colleagues at the
National Park that the stumps actually started regrowing,
which is brilliant news.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Oh, that's fantastic news, Andrew.
ANDREW POAD: Yeah, it was a real pleasant surprise to get the
call. The really nice story is the chap who found it is the
first person that was on site that confirmed that the tree had
actually been felled. He's the National Trail Ranger for
Hadrian's Wall. So it's really nice that it's him that's the
one that's spotted the regrowth first. A little bit of
serendipity there.
So the last time I was there, we got up to 12 new shoots. They're
only a few centimetres tall and a few centimetres across with
two or three leaves on each shoot. And they're a lovely
rusty red colour at the moment. And that's great. I mean, this
is nature bouncing back. This is how it responds. And whether all
the shoots survive or not remains to be seen.
I'm delighted the tree's regrowing, although it'll never
look the same as the original tree. It's the best possible
outcome we could get. So it's really nice to share, when I was
on site, sharing that with other people. What we were saying to a
lot of them who had children with them is that they're going
to need to come back in... 10, 20 years time and see the
results of what they've just witnessed.
HEATHER BIRKETT: As encouraging signs of regrowth emerge at the
stump, plans are also underway for the stored wood. After a
year of careful seasoning, the largest section has been gifted
to the Northumberland National Park Authority. CEO Tony Gates
tells us more.
TONY GATES: The National Park Authority, we own and run the...
Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre on Hadrian's
Wall.
It's the closest visitor centre to the site of Sycamore Gap. We
get about 125,000 visitors a year through the centre and it
would have been one of the most popular starting points for
people who wanted to walk to see the Sycamore Gap tree.
We gathered all the feedback that people sent to us following
the felling of the tree and one of the things that came through
is that people wanted to see some type of long-term legacy
for the tree in the Sill, In the visitor centre and so we've
negotiated with the National Trust and they've kindly agreed
to gift us the largest remaining intact section of the Sycamore
Gap tree and the idea is that we use that to create a lasting
legacy for Sycamore Gap that people can visit in the Sill
National Landscape Centre and it means that people who maybe
physically can't get as far out as the site itself can still
have some contact with the tree.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Earlier in the year a call went out for artists
to design an exhibition that would incorporate the gifted
tree section. This exhibition is set to open at the Sill in the
Northumberland National Park Discovery Centre one year after
the felling. The commissioned artists are Charlie Winnie, Nick
Greenall and Matt Sowerby.
It's a beautiful sunny day in August and I've come to a Barn
in rural Cumbria. Nestled between the majestic fells of
the Lake District and the open waters of Morecambe Bay, it's a
really special corner of Cumbria that feels incredibly tucked
away.
The Barn is home to an artist's studio where the artists
specialise in art made from wood.
We're inside the studio now and you might be able to hear a
little bit of action in the background, some sawing and
drilling, but I'm sat here with two of the artists involved.
NICK GREENALL: Good afternoon, my name's Nick Greenall and this
is Charlie Winnie and jointly we're both directors of a
community interest company called Creative Communities and
we do kind of out there art projects with members of the
community who might not normally get the opportunity to do that
kind of thing.
On this particular project, the Sycamore Gap project, we're
working with a poet called Matt Sowerby. So we've got poetry,
we've got Charlie Winnie who's an amazing steam woodbender.
HEATHER BIRKETT: We come to you Charlie, I wondered if you could
tell us a bit about your work.
CHARLIE WHINNEY: The reason you can see all these strange,
twizzly, curly shapes around you is because my sketchbook is full
of these shapes and part of the interest and the challenge for
me is to take normal wood from a tree outside and use as little
energy as possible and still achieve beautiful results.
HEATHER BIRKETT: So can I ask, have you seen the tree?
NICK GREENALL: We have. Charlie was keen to study the material
that he'd be working with, and there was a bit of mystery about
where the tree actually might be. It may be in Devon, it may
be in Berwick-upon-Tweed. And then they took us, and then the
tree out of the darkness was revealed.
CHARLIE WHINNEY: When I saw it, I'd already met, I don't know,
like 100 people who had tears when it came down. And I think
looking at the bark of the tree and all the interesting swirls
and patterns... Having already studied loads of photographs of
the living tree, and it was like, oh my God, it's you. It's
the same one. It was a strange feeling.
NICK GREENALL: Because I'd seen the tree in life in this dip on
Hadrian's Wall. It was just very aesthetic. It was the right tree
in the right place. And then seeing it cut up as a log, there
was definitely a disconnect between seeing a log of wood and
this formerly beautiful tree in life.
HEATHER BIRKETT: So Charlie, what happens next?
CHARLIE WHINNEY: There were two stages to this project. You've
come to us now about five weeks before the first stage is going
to be complete. It's going to be the one year on exhibition at
the Sill. And I'm making five giant canvases that are going to
go on the Wall. They're going to depict the tree wrapping around
the gallery, kind of life size.
And in the middle of the gallery will be our log, which the
National Trust have currently given us.
NICK GREENALL: So there'll be an opportunity for people to make
pledges. And they may be pledges of what they're going to do for
nature. And it's these pledges that will be gathered and they
will form part of the final piece that Charlie is going to
make.
HEATHER BIRKETT: So as a phase one that's an amazing way to
capture people's feelings and connection with the tree. What
happens to all those pledges afterwards?
CHARLIE WHINNEY: I'll show you so in my hands here I've got one
of our samples from the final sculpture so these are just
ideas.
HEATHER BIRKETT: I can see some twisted wood almost in a spiral
with a lovely grain on it and then engraved onto the flat side
of the twist some words. I will get chickens who will eat our
scraps.
At the exhibition at the Sill, visitors will see a section of
the felled Sycamore Gap tree, along with all the artwork
surrounding it. Charlie's also designed seating for the show,
so visitors can sit, reflect and immerse in the exhibition.
NICK GREENALL: So we're going to go next door now, and we've been
steaming some wood, so the process of steam woodbending is
we heat the wood in a steam chamber and all the lignin and
cellulose in the wood becomes malleable and then you're able
to bend it. It's quite a marvellous thing to see so let's
go and have a look.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Sounds like magic.
CHARLIE WHINNEY: So this metal thing here is a compression
strap that I'm going to put on the outside of the wood. It's
got a compression strap so it's going to literally squash all
the fibres as we bend around. The wood needs to be about 100
degrees. If it isn't then it'll break.
So this is a piece of ash that I'm putting in here. So I'm
going to put it into the compression strap, and I'm going
to see how many times I can bend this piece of ash around here.
I'm going to go for number four. There we go, there's our thing.
HEATHER BIRKETT: And then it was my turn to have a go.
CHARLIE WHINNEY: Do you see all the sculptures over there? Yes.
You're making one of them. Okay. Can you say they all look
completely different? Yes. So there's no rules? Okay. You can
do what you want.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Charlie has handed me five strands of wood
that we're going to wrap around here.
CHARLIE WHINNEY: Yeah.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Oh, it's not easy.
CHARLIE WHINNEY: That's perfect. There you go.
HEATHER BIRKETT: Like a granny knot in wood.
Thank you so much for showing me your workshop, Charlie, and to
show us how this wood is bent. And it really gives us an
insight into the kind of methods and skills involved in the work
that you're going to be doing for the Sycamore Gap project.
Stage one of the exhibition is set to run at the Sill until the
end of October, ahead of the permanent exhibition in spring
2025. Meanwhile, the saplings, which are around five feet tall,
are thriving under the expert care of the Plant Conservation
Centre.
To Mark the one-year-on anniversary, 49 of the new
Sycamore Gap trees will be available for the public to
request through the Trees of Hope campaign, while a handful
of the others have or are in the process of being allocated to
amazing projects around the country. Please head to our
episode show notes for more details.
The Sycamore Gap tree may be gone, but its legacy lives on in
a story that is far from over.
Thank you for listening to the National Trust Podcast. If
you've liked what you've heard, please make sure to subscribe on
your favourite podcast app or visit us at
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ podcasts. Until next time, from
me, Heather Burkett, goodbye.