College’s ‘soul’ to be felled
Feb 28 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal
THE North was still coming to grips yesterday with the aftermath of Tuesday’s gales.
Students and staff at a Northumberland college were upset to discover the high winds caused irreparable damage to a much-loved tree believed to be more than 300 years old.
The east and west wings of Kirkley Hall near Ponteland were built around the Cedar of Lebanon tree in the mid-18th Century, and the tree is rumoured to have already been 100 years old at the time.
Since then it has been the centrepiece of the Northumberland College campus but Tuesday’s gusts of up to 70mph split it in half at its crown, forcing the evacuation of the hall.
Yesterday Paul Conlin, who heads the college’s land-based industries curriculum area, said: “I’ve had many students and staff today tell me how upset they are that the tree is having to be felled. If the students are the heart of Kirkley Hall, this tree is its soul.”
Last night DFDS confirmed repairs to the King of Scandinavia had still not been completed and the sailing to Ijmuiden in Holland on Saturday and the return to Newcastle on Sunday have been cancelled.
The ferry slipped its moorings amid 70mph gusts last Friday and was blown across the Tyne into the decommissioned North Producer oil rig.
A spokeswoman for the Port of Tyne Authority said an investigation had been launched into how the 30,000 tonne vessel had become loose.
In Durham City yesterday part of Old Elvet was closed to allow workmen to repair the wind damaged roof of a building and today North Bailey is expected to be closed between 11am and 1pm to allow workers to secure the cross on the chapel roof at Hatfield College.
