When the Sycamore Gap tree was felled, many began to wonder how the tree, so perfectly positioned in the central dip of the Hadrian's Wall between Housesteads and Steel Rigg, Northumberland, came to be in the first place. Was it deliberately planted or simply "serendipity of the wind"? Many suspect the hand of John Clayton.

LONDON (AP) — Vandals who cut down England’s beloved Sycamore Gap tree were sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison for damaging the country’s natural heritage and for the outrage and distress they caused.