One year after the famous Sycamore Gap tree was cut down a 7ft (2m) section of the trunk has returned home.

The piece is now the star-attraction in a new exhibition at The Sill visitor centre near Hexham, in Northumberland, which celebrates the life of the tree.

As part of the project, visitors will be asked to make pledges about how they can help protect the environment.

The National Trust has also launched an opportunity for people to request one of 49 Sycamore Gap saplings to be gifted to their communities around the UK, reflecting the 49ft (15m) height of the tree.

The tree, which was a much-loved subject for artists and photographers, was illegally felled exactly one year ago.

Two men have denied damaging the tree and are due to stand trial in December.

Nick Greenall, part of the Cumbrian Art Collective who created the exhibition, said the aim was not just to “memorialise” the tree, but to “subvert it into positive action for nature”.

He said the art collective wanted to turn the story of the sad demise of the tree into one of hope.

He said: “We are going to get people to make pledges, how they think they can benefit the environment.

“So they could say, ‘I’m going to plant 10 trees a year for the rest of my life’.

“We very much wanted to harness that interest and goodwill – it’s very much an exhibition that’s looking forward.”

Artist Charlie Whinney, who has a studio near Kendal in Cumbria, has created four wooden panels and the lengths of them, when added together, make up the 49ft (15m) height of the tree as it was.

Each of the panels represents a season and the piece of trunk sits in front of the autumn panel, as that was the time of year it was cut down.

The summer panel started off filled with a number of white paper sycamore-shaped leaves, which were painted by hundreds of school children during workshops earlier in the week, ahead of Saturday’s opening.

Mr Whinney said this was the panel he was most excited about completing.

“We’ve got 300 kids coming in, they’re going to write an oath or a promise about what can grown-ups do better for the environment – I’m worried about what they’re going to say.”

The piece of trunk will become a permanent display at The Sill from the spring and the final design of how it will be shown will be developed from the ideas that are gathered throughout this exhibition.

To mark the first anniversary of the tree’s felling, the National Trust says people can apply for one of the 49 Sycamore Gap saplings to grow into a tree in a space for their community.

Andrew Poad, general manager for the National Trust’s Hadrian’s Wall properties, said he hoped the project would help communities feel part of the tree’s “wonderful legacy” and would help create “a new chapter in the life of this legendary tree”.

He added: “The last 12 months have been a real rollercoaster of emotions, from the hopelessness and grief we felt when we discovered that the tree had been illegally felled, to experiencing the stories shared with us about just what the tree meant to so many.”

As part of this Trees of Hope initiative, Henshaw Church of England Primary School in Hexham, which is closest to the Sycamore Gap, and all 15 UK national parks will receive a sapling.

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