Police in Northumbria, England today arrested a 16-year-old boy in conjunction with the felling of one of the country’s most iconic trees.
Authorities said the teenager was in custody under suspicion of criminal damage and was cooperating with an investigation.
Police superintendent Kevin Waring told the BBC that the tree was “a world-renowned landmark.” He said that its loss had “caused significant shock, sadness and anger throughout the local community and beyond.”
Sycamore Gap, the location of the tree, is a landmark for tourists and photographers along Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland. Growing from the bottom of a swale in the landscape near Hexham, its namesake tree earned fame in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.
Already famous among UK naturalists, it stood as “an important and iconic feature in the landscape for nearly 200 years,” the National Trust reported.
That was until overnight on Wednesday. Locals arrived to find the previously healthy tree down, cut cleanly near its base. Northumberland National Park Authority officials have given the opinion that the tree was “deliberately felled.”
Liverpool resident Alison Hawkins arrived early at the scene on Thursday. She said she was “tearful” when a national park ranger told her the tree had fallen.
“It was a proper shock. It’s basically the iconic picture that everyone wants to see,” she told the BBC.
Authorities solicited information relevant to the case as heartache wracked the greater community.
“We have reason to believe it has been deliberately felled.”
Now sh*t, Sherlock. How exactly do you saw through a massive centuries-old sycamore tree accidentally?
Somebody needs to go to jail for a very long time. https://t.co/iRZ4fe0I9R
— Mark Horrell 🗻 (@markhorrell) September 28, 2023
