Photo 07-01

Before work began, this was how the

tree looked at 8.00am on 13 March

Photo 07-02

 By 9.00, the tree surgeons had arrived:

Tom Fowles and Pete McAdam. Tom

quickly hooked up his safety equipment

and began to climb the tree

Photo 07-03

Within minutes, Tom's chainsaw was red-hot

as he sliced off bough after bough, allowing

them to fall into the driveway area...

Photo 07-04

...where Pete's chainsaw was equally active, dividing the boughs and branches into logs and discs

Photo 07-05

Soon, the driveway was impassable

Photo 07-06

At 10.00, it was quite clear the tree was

missing a significant portion of its crown

Photo 07-07

After many failed attempts, I managed to

capture a piece of bough on its way to Earth

Photo 07-08

In order to remove the branches overhanging the road,

Tom and Pete together used a pulley system to lower branches to the ground, one by one

Photo 07-09

By 2.00pm, the skyline had changed quite dramatically

and the action had drawn a small group of spectators

Photo 07-10

At the end of the day, Tom and Pete had to rake up all the debris on the roadway and pavement and feed it into the chipper...

Photo 07-11

...after which it looked like this!

Photo 07-12

When they left at the end of Day

One, the tree looked like this

Photo 07-13

The following day, I realised the Treefellers team had an extra member I'd not noticed! Meet Neville, Tom's dog who follows him everywhere

Photo 07-14

Day Two started with Tom executing

some precarious manoeuvres!

Photo 07-15

This hefty bough was expertly brought to ground; you

can see Pete working the pulley inside the driveway

Photo 07-16

At 10.00am, the crown was nearly gone...

Photo 07-17

...and an hour later, it had!

Photo 07-18

Tom and I then had the great idea of sending my camera up to him on a rope. This wonderful aerial view of the cemetery gives the project a whole new perspective

Photo 07-19

By the time Tom and Pete left on Day

Two, this was all that was left

Photo 07-20

Once again, Deane Road was covered in debris...

Photo 07-21

...which was swiftly converted...

Photo 07-22

...to this! So ended the first stage of the demise of the tree

Photo 07-23

 The second stage was to remove the

remainder of the trunk, which had to

wait until 29 April. Here, new man Steve

Sutherland climbs the tree against a

perfect morning sky

Photo 07-24

He meticulously covered the top of the

tree in rope after rope, each one

performing a different job

Photo 07-25

He then put in a "sink cut" with his chainsaw,

ready to topple the upper section of the trunk

Photo 07-26

The appropriate ropes were attached

via steel cable to the Treefellers'

Land Rover and...

Photo 07-27

...Geronimo!!! There goes the first section!!

Steve had sawn all the way through the

trunk and Tom pulled it down from the

Land Rover

Photo 07-28

Neville had seen it all before, though,

& allowed himself a yawn

Photo 07-29

Tom got straight to work sawing up the first section

Photo 07-30

Before long, the second section met its end

Photo 07-31

There it goes!!

Photo 07-32

The third section was the biggest

Photo 07-33

This photo is deceptive: the trunk is actually still in motion

and came to rest to the right of the other sections

Photo 07-34

Once the trunk was down, the clear-up started. Tom, Pete and Steve all fired up their chainsaws and started dividing

all the sections into discs. The noise was deafening!

Photo 07-35

Each disc cut into smaller pieces

Photo 07-36

The process took several hours and all the

chainsaws had to be re-sharpened after a while!

Photo 07-37

Pete put all the pieces of trunk in the Treefellers'

van and Tom took two van-loads to be dumped

Photo 07-38

By mid-afternoon, the tree was history, the Treefellers left and the rain came. So ended the first stage of the demise

of the tree

Photo 07-39

It was 13 May when the final stage was carried out: the grinding of the stump. Here, Tom positions the deadly machine over the tree stump

Photo 07-40

Tom had counted the tree's rings before he started and said the tree was approximately 90-100 years old, but the

grinder tore into the stump as if it were paper

Photo 07-41

This is the blade that did work

Photo 07-42

Gradually, more and more of the stump was

ground away, being reduced to chippings

Photo 07-43

After just over an hour, this was all that remained of the poplar that had stood in the cemetery driveway for so long

Photo 07-44

When Tom left for the last time, this was the new view

of the cemetery entrance, with no tree to obscure it.

The driveway will be landscaped this summer,

all being well, and this will include the planting of two

semi-mature oak trees to replace the old poplar