Two men charged with cutting down the famous Sycamore Gap tree

Two men have been charged over the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland last September.

Daniel Graham, 38, and Adam Carruthers, 31, have been charged with deliberately damaging the tree and Hadrian’s Wall, prosecutors said.

Both are due to appear before South East Northumberland District Court on 15 May.

When it was discovered in September that the popular 200-year-old tree had been cut down, there was a nationwide outcry.

Northumberland National Park (NNP) said it had received 2,000 “heartfelt” messages from people around the world expressing their grief and had been inundated with offers of help.

Among those expressing their outrage at the tree felling were celebrity chefs the Hairy Bikers. Si King, one half of the duo, said the perpetrator had “murdered the spirit” of Northumberland – a comment that underlines the strength of feelings for the tree.

Among those paying tribute to the tree was a woman who wrote a poem describing it as the “guardian of time.”

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Laura Charlton said she wrote the poem, a Ode to a Sycamoreto try to capture the “recklessness of the actions and the sense of grief among the locals.”

Residents from across the UK – not just Northumberland – expressed their anger at the felling of the tree.

Stephen Gallen, from Castlederg, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, said it was “appalling that someone could destroy something as beautiful as the tree on Hadrian’s Wall”.

In an update last month, the NNP said most of the sycamore would go on display in September at The Sill, a tourist attraction near its original location, after weeks of speculation about what would happen to its remains.

They added that this would “give people a lasting connection to the tree.”

The stump remains in its original place in the hope that it will grow back over time.

In December, the National Trust said seeds and materials collected from the original tree would be closely monitored and stored at the charity’s specialist plant conservation centre.

The tree, probably one of the most photographed in the country, once stood in a gap along Hadrian’s Wall – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – and was a popular meeting place for tourists and walkers.

Its origins are thought to date back to the Middle Ages and two excavations have already been carried out – between 1908 and 1911 and again between 1982 and 1987 – which found Roman remains associated with Hadrian’s Wall.

The plane tree probably first became known worldwide after it was featured in the film Robin Hood – Prince of Thieveswith Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman.