Preparations began yesterday for the tree's removal, with bystanders asked to avoid the area while the work continues. Experts want to keep the trunk in large sections while they decide what to do with it in the future.
In the 17 days since the sickening felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, there has been no shortage of suggestions how it might be replaced.
And as befits a scenario that would also make a fitting plotline for Midsomer Murders, a £1,500 bar tab has been offered by the local pub for information leading to an arrest. Some want a sculpture to fill the void, – a full-size replica cast in metal – while others feel a bench, hand-crafted from its timber, would be an apt memorial
Others claimed it might have been someone with a grievance against the National Trust, which looks after the tree's site, along with the Northumberland National Park. His eviction, it transpires, had been a long-running and bitter affair that ended with him being forced to leave the farmhouse that had been home to three generations of his family. Within hours, the tree was cut down.
'The National Trust owns lands opposite it and they made a complaint about the campsite, which didn't help his case for staying on the land.' What detectives from Northumbria Police do have in their favour is that the crime scene was largely undisturbed. Liaising with arboriculturists and chainsaw experts at the Woodland Trust, analysis of the cleanly severed trunk of the 70 ft-tall sycamore suggests that it could only have been done by someone with professional skills.
From the cutting marks left on the trunk, it is believed the chainsaw's blade was between 25 in and 35 inch, larger than models sold at DIY shops The technique was successfully used recently by law enforcement agencies in America to convict two men of stealing timber used for making top-end acoustic guitars.
'I would argue it could. If there were some chips from where they first cut the tree, when the blade cut the tree, there would definitely be DNA.' Mr Renwick said his work as a lumberjack for 40 years had seen him identified as a potential suspect. 'It makes it sound like me, doesn't it, because it was a good cut,' he said, referring to the culprit's handiwork.'When I say brilliant, you can tell a good lumberjack by the way he cuts a tree down. I haven't seen the cut obviously but I have seen it on the computer.'Police searching outbuildings at his property were seen removing the saw as well as other items.
'I mean some days I could just stay in bed and not get up, and that is not me, I worked day and night on the farm. I was born here. It is like a tree with roots.' Records show that the National Trust owns two parcels of land nearby, including nearly 200 acres acquired by the charity in 1942 from the late Queen Elizabeth's great uncle, The Honourable Francis Bowes-Lyon
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