Famous UK Tree Proving Partial Damage To Old Hadrian's Wall

When the iconic British tree was cut last fall, images revealed the horizontal trunk laying across a section of Hadrian's Wall, founded by the Romans.

Because of its appearance in Kevin Costner's 1991 film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," the tree in the Northumberland National Park in northern England became famous across the world. Its spectacular setting in a landscape gap, bordered by Hadrian's Wall, attracted the attention of hundreds of photographers and earned it the 2016 title of England's Tree of the Year.

The incident that took place in September is being investigated as a possible "deliberate act of vandalism" by the police. The tree was eventually felled and hauled away.

On Tuesday, Historic England, the government agency in charge of preserving historic sites, identified the damaged section of Hadrian's Wall where the falling occurred. In a social media post published on Tuesday, the organisation said that "cracks and pieces" had been discovered in two of the wall's stones during an archaeological evaluation, and that the damage had been caused during the removal of the sycamore tree.

About 1,900 years ago, the Romans built Hadrian's Wall to fortify the empire's northernmost border. The wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and stretches for over 73 miles across northern England.

According to Historic England, they shared damage details with law enforcement to help in their investigation. The National Trust, a UK non-profit that also helps maintain the structure, was also stated to be working with the government "on a strategy to restore the damage" to Hadrian's Wall.

The National Trust, meantime, encourages interested parties to get in contact with their views on the potential future of both the property and the tree.

 

Source: cnn.com