ROSIE HOLDSWORTH : Hello and welcome to Wild Tales. I'm Rosie

Holdsworth and for this episode I'm handing you over to gardens

expert Heather Birkett. Nine months ago we released a podcast

about a tree that moved an entire nation. This was 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.

HEATHER BIRKETT: 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 following year, we were

able to go behind the scenes and gain 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. And

now, because of the renewed interest in the tree. We're

re-releasing this episode, complete with an update at the

end, sharing the latest conservation news from Sycamore

Gap.

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 1,900 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 in 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: She's only eight months old, and Archie was 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 that 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.

ANDREW POAD: 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

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,

a 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

the 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 joiners 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. And 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

divine. So we need to get in there as soon as possible to do

our work.

I'm Chris Strimmer, 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 have 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 stemmed 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 Haydon 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 has 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 Harian'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 grows 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 is 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 Brannigan, 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 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'd 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.

And 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 of 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 Whinney 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 Whinney 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 there 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 wood bending 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 : This metal thing here is a compression

strap that I'm going to put on the outside of the wood. It's

called 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?

HEATHER BIRKETT: Yes.

CHARLIE WHINNEY : You're making one of them.

HEATHER BIRKETT: Okay.

CHARLIE WHINNEY : Can you see they all look completely

different?

HEATHER BIRKETT: Yes.

CHARLIE WHINNEY : So there's no rules?

HEATHER BIRKETT: Okay.

CHARLIE WHINNEY : 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 : Yes.

HEATHER BIRKETT: Oh, it's not easy.

CHARLIE WHINNEY : That's perfect. There we 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.

The story of the Sycamore Gap tree continues to touch people

across the country and beyond.

Stage one of the exhibition at the Sill was hugely popular with

local people and visitors to the area. Artist Charlie Winnie. Is

now working on a permanent exhibition featuring the tree,

which will be revealed later this summer.

In summer 2024, new shoots began emerging from the tree stump,

and conservationists noticed early signs of growth again this

spring.

The National Trust and partners are carefully monitoring the new

growth and protecting the stump with fencing, and visitors are

being respectfully asked not to touch the shoots. The plan is to

leave the shoots undisturbed for a few years to see how they

develop before deciding how best to manage the tree.

Meanwhile, the saplings are thriving under the expert care

of the Plant Conservation Centre. To mark the one-year-on

anniversary, 49 of these new sycamore saplings were allocated

to inspiring projects across the country through a campaign

called Trees Of Hope. Planting will begin this winter. The

Sycamore Gap Tree may be gone from the landscape, but its

legacy lives on in a story that is far from over.

Thank you for listening to this bonus episode of Wild Tales. I

hope you've enjoyed it. Make sure you get every episode. By

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at wildtalesnt. While you're there, why not check out our

history show, Back When? Or for smaller ears, Ranger Ray and the

Wildlifeers. See you next time.