IT is no exaggeration to say that the North East is in mourning for the loss of one of its icons. People were in tears when they heard the tree at Sycamore Gap has been cut down.

It was as recognisable as the Angel of the North and it captured the spirit of the region just as well. Surrounded by wild, untamed countryside yet in touch with the history and culture at its roots, it resolutely withstood everything the elements could throw at it so that, in its perfect bowl, it often looked truly beautiful – its green glowing in the sunshine against the Northumbrian blue, or its painter’s palette of autumn colours, or its famous silhouette with the Northern Lights playing in the nightskies behind it.

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Even on a grey day, with family groups arranged around its trunk, it was the picture everyone wanted. There is no photographer in our region who has not tried to capture their own image of this icon.

Yet more than that, more even than the Angel of the North, this was a living organism. It may only be a tree, but we humans should be caring for the things that share our planet – that’s what makes its senseless slaying seem so cruel.

It is truly irreplaceable. The Angel, or the Transporter Bridge, could conceivably be recast, but the sycamore now is utterly gone – it may, some day regrow, but not in such perfect but natural form.

So the tears were for the memories so many people have today and for the lost opportunities of future generations. They were for the sense of identity and place that the tree created which has now been stolen from us, and for the sense of futility at such a pointless act – why would anyone do such a thing?

And they were for the tree itself, once living but now cut down in its prime.

Robbed of the sycamore from Sycamore Gap, the North East is a poorer place.

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