Saplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including next to one of London’s most famous roads, at a rural category C prison and at a motor neurone disease centre opening in the name of the late rugby league star Rob Burrow.
The National Trust on Friday announced the recipients of 49 saplings it has called “trees of hope”.
Other recipients include a charity set up by the family of murdered Northumberland schoolgirl Holly Newton, who was killed by her jealous ex-boyfriend Logan MacPhail; and Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool.
Nearly 500 applications were received after the Trust announced a scheme for the saplings to be gifted across the UK. There are 49 - one for each foot of the sycamore’s height – and all were grown from seeds recovered from the felled tree.
The Sycamore Gap tree was planted as a landscape feature on Hadrian’s Wall 150 years ago, becoming one of the most photographable places in England and the site of countless marriage proposals, birthday celebrations and scatterings of ashes.
Its illegal felling in September last year made headlines across the world, prompting feelings of sorrow, distress and anger.
“The tree meant so much to so many,” said Catherine Nuttgens, a tree expert who led the panel of judges which sifted through the applications. “Its destruction felt utterly senseless.”
Judging the applications had been a privilege and humbling, she said. “They were from across the whole country, from all walks of life, from pretty English villages to prisons.
“Everyone had their individual story and honestly, I could only read so many at a time … it was really emotional. They were all deserving, it was really, really hard to choose.”
All the saplings will be planted in publicly accessible places and will include the Rob Burrow centre for motor neurone disease due to open next summer at Seacroft hospital in Leeds.
Burrow’s widow Lindsey said the centre would feature a garden at its core.
“This ‘tree of hope’ perfectly reflects our struggles and will provide our families with a powerful reminder that it is possible to heal even after we have been cut down,” she said. “It signifies renewal, regeneration and the ability to evolve.”
The sapling in memory of Holly Newton goes to the charity Holly’s Hope, set up by her mother and stepfather, Micala and Lee Trussler, to raise awareness of the warning signs young people should look for when experiencing their first relationships.
Micala said getting a sapling meant a lot. “This tree of hope will be a symbol for everyone that knew Holly, to reflect and remember how amazing she was.”
Another sapling will be planted at a community garden under the Westway, the dominating elevated dual carriageway that scythes through west London. The recipients are the not for profit Grow to Know which was born out of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
Tayshan Hayden-Smith, the founder and creative director, said: “Nature is at the heart of everything we do, and planting one of the Sycamore Gap tree saplings in North Kensington will be a symbol of seeds of change, hope and community.”
Other recipients include: Morton Hall prison in Lincolnshire, a category C facility for foreign national offenders; The Tree Sanctuary in Coventry where teenagers known as the “Tree Amigos” replant trees damaged by vandalism; and the LGBTQI+ network at the Ministry of Defence.
As well as the 49, the UK’s 15 national parks will receive a sapling. King Charles has received a seedling for planting in Windsor Great Park when it is a sapling.
Nuttgens said not everyone is a sycamore tree fan – people who park their cars under a sycamore will know about the amount of sticky sap from them – but she adores them.
Their dark green leaves in the summer create a canopy like broccoli, she said. “They have that lumpy, cloudy effect. They are very beautiful, architecturally fine trees.”
