Bark not Bach at heart of Gap tree symphony

A music student from Hartlepool has produced a symphonic piece to celebrate "the life and impact" a famous 200-year-old tree had before its infamous felling.

- Madeleine Raine

James Ellingford, 23, has composed the Sycamore Symphony to celebrate the life of the famous Sycamore Gap tree, found in a dip in Hadrian's Wall, after it was axed in 2023.

In September 2023, news spread that the sycamore tree had been cut down overnight.

James, a postgraduatemu-sic student at Huddersfield University, said: "I was lucky enough to have visited the tree a matter of weeks before it was felled.

"It's such a special area and is so important to so many people. The pictures of the tree lying across Hadrian's Wall were heart-breaking.