Three benches with canopies formed from curved wooden stems and leaves now surround the trunk, the seats inscribed with words taken from people’s submissions.
The Northumberland National Park Authority (NNPA) received thousands of emails, letters and messages in visitor books from people talking about the tree, with every one read by staff members.
The authority commissioned Charlie and the Creative Communities art collective, a community interest company which creates sustainable art projects, to deliver an artistic response with the wood.
“It was very important at the beginning when we received the commission to kind of represent people that loved the tree, or knew the tree in life,” says Nick Greenall, of the collective.
“It shows by its absence how much it meant to people.”