2 men charged with cutting down the beloved Sycamore Gap tree are going on trial in northern England

LONDON (AP) — There is simply a spread successful the bosom of the rolling hills of bluish England.

A majestic sycamore histrion that erstwhile sat symmetrically betwixt 2 hills on Hadrian's Wall was mysteriously felled much than a year-and-a-half ago, causing disbelief and distress for those who considered it an astir ineffable site.

“We’re inactive devastated by it,” said Catherine Cape, who runs a tiny impermanent compartment nearby. "I can’t thrust past it. ... I conscionable don’t similar looking astatine the abstraction there.”

Cape volition beryllium among those paying attraction this week erstwhile prosecutors successful Newcastle Crown Court statesman presenting their lawsuit Monday against 2 men accused of toppling the celebrated Sycamore Gap histrion and damaging the past wall.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, person pleaded not blameworthy to 2 counts each of transgression damage. Prosecutors said the worth of the histrion exceeded 620,000 pounds ($826,000) and harm to the partition was assessed astatine 1,100 pounds ($1,466).

The two-week trial, primitively scheduled to commencement successful December, was postponed due to the fact that Graham was ill.

Prosecutors haven't said what grounds they person oregon what inspired the suspects to chop down the revered tree.

A transgression prosecution for cutting down a histrion is uncommon and the imaginable for immoderate situation clip for specified an discourtesy — not to notation that the maximum punishment for transgression harm is 10 years down bars — is perchance unprecedented, said lawyer Sarah Dodd who specializes successful histrion law.

“I don’t deliberation anybody has got a custodial condemnation for the amerciable felling of a histrion yet successful the U.K.,” said Dodd, who researched it and discussed the substance with colleagues. “That’s connected the array due to the fact that of the gravity of the situation. And erstwhile I accidental gravity, I deliberation worth and besides daze of the nation.”

The histrion was acold from Britain’s biggest oregon oldest. But the mode the tree's graceful canopy filled the saddle successful the hills on a agelong of the past partition built by Emperor Hadrian successful A.D. 122 to support the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire had attracted generations of followers.

The histrion became celebrated aft being featured successful Kevin Costner’s 1991 movie “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves,” and was a large gully for tourists, scenery photographers and radical snapping selfies for societal media.

“I've ne'er had truthful galore conversations arsenic I’ve had astir the Sycamore Gap,” said Dodd, who plans to be the proceedings arsenic a once-in-a-career opportunity. “Everybody knows astir it. It’s captured the hearts oregon the attraction astatine slightest of the full of the U.K. Even radical that don’t truly attraction astir trees oregon would not truly adjacent deliberation astir it.”

The grassy spot on the partition had been the tract of archetypal kisses, wedding proposals and a spot wherever the ashes of loved ones were scattered.

Cape walked to the histrion connected the archetypal dates with her aboriginal husband. They aboriginal watched their girl instrumentality her archetypal steps there. And aft her parent and sister some died successful 2020, Cape met her brother-in-law and nephews determination erstwhile they couldn’t stitchery indoors during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Before the histrion was chopped down, astir 80% of the inquiries astatine the main visitors' halfway of the Northumberland National Park were from radical readying to locomotion to the tree, the park’s main executive, Tony Gates, said aft the histrion was chopped down.

"The tree’s portion of our Northumbrian identity. It’s thing that everybody grows up knowing about,” Cape said. “For the radical successful the villages astir the tree, who unrecorded adjacent the tree, it was a root of large pride.”

The sycamore was removed with a crane and taken to a National Trust spot for storage. A conception of the trunk went connected show astatine the parkland visitant halfway past twelvemonth and seeds from the histrion that were utilized to turn saplings are being donated for planting astir the U.K.

In time, the histrion itself whitethorn turn back. Dozens of shoots person sprouted from the stump.