![]() Legend has it that Isaac Newton formulated gravitational theory in 1665 or 1666 after watching an apple fall and asking why the apple fell straight down, rather than sideways or even upward. The English scientist was born especially tiny but grew into a massive intellect and still looms large, thanks to his findings on gravity, light, motion, mathematics, and more. Film fans were distraught and souvenir-hunters rushed to the site, removing parts of the fallen tree.Today on the Google home page, an animated apple is falling, over and over, with a satisfying plunk-a 367th birthday tribute to Sir Isaac Newton. In 2016, strong winds uprooted a majestic white oak in Mansfield, Ohio in the US, made famous by the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption. ![]() The original tree in his Woolsthorpe estate blew down in a gale, but scions (as at Glastonbury) were taken and grafted to create clones.Īs a result, “Newton’s apple trees” are now found across the world, their roots connecting to create a library of human history and discovery. There is a proliferation of “Newton’s apple” trees supposedly descended from the tree under which physicist Isaac Newton devised his law of universal gravity. In 2016, at a dawn ceremony, nine young tōtara and pōhutukawa trees were planted on the hilltop, grown from parent trees on the maunga (the ancestral mountains of the Māori people), establishing a line of succession and memory. Twice – in 19 – attempts were made to destroy the tree as a protest against perceived injustices perpetrated against Māori people, before it was finally removed on safety grounds in 2000. The pine had been planted on the peak to replace a native tōtara tree, chopped down by a European settler. One Tree Hill, also known as Maungakiekie. But it was also a focus of controversy as a culturally and spiritually significant place for the Māori and Pākehā people. Like the Sycamore Gap tree, the pine was an iconic landmark, dominating the skyline. One Tree HillĪ similarly chequered history belongs to the 125-year-old Monterey Pine which sat on top One Tree Hill or Maungakiekie in Auckland, New Zealand. A branch of this thorn in bud has been sent to the British monarch every Christmas since. After the damage caused to the Holy Thorn in 1647, cuttings were taken from which a tree now growing in Glastonbury Abbey is believed to descend. But despite its chequered history, traditions associated with the holy thorn endure. In May 2019 the landowner removed what remained of the thorn. On April 1 2012, a sapling grafted from a descendant of the pre-1951 thorn was consecrated and planted, but two weeks later it too was damaged beyond recovery. ![]() Joseph of Arimathea, the perpetrators were described by the director of Glastonbury Abbey, as “mindless vandals who have hacked down this tree” and “struck at the heart of Christianity”. In language that echoed the legend of St. In 1951, a new thorn was planted in its place, but in December 2010 this too was reduced to a stump. After reaching Glastonbury in Somerset, he climbed Wearyall Hill, rested and thrust his staff into the ground. Joseph of Arimathea brought Christianity to England in the first century AD. The Holy Thorn of GlastonburyĪccording to legend, St. Here are four other examples of emotional tree fellings from history. The emotional response to the loss of the Sycamore Gap is part of a long history of emblematic trees, their destruction and renewal. The legends associated with such trees connect us with the past and remind us that we live in their shadow. Planted in the late 19th century, the roots of the Sycamore Gap tree reached deep into individual and collective memory. The Sycamore Gap was an inspiration to photographers and artists and a focal point for common rites of passage – proposals, family reunions, remembering the dead. The tree – known as the “ Sycamore Gap” – had been an iconic landmark and its location, Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, is a protected Unesco world heritage site. The felling of a single sycamore tree prompted an outpouring of grief last week. ![]()
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