One morning just days after the nation woke to find the Sycamore Gap tree felled by an unknown vandal, Paul Lawrence was walking his dog in a field in East Sussex. His route passed close to a massive and ancient yew, where he had scattered his grandfather’s ashes. Or, at least, close to where the tree used to be.
The yew was still in the field about a mile from Senlac Hill, the generally accepted location of the battle of Hastings. But it now lay on its side, uprooted and dragged about 100 metres from the chasm left when its roots were torn from the ground.
