Residents and tourists said goodbye to a 300-year-old landmark which was felled last week to quell fears over health and safety.

It took more than nine hours to axe the large sycamore tree which once stood tall beside High Yewdale, a high-profile Lake District farmhouse near Coniston.

The National Trust decided the tree needed felling after tests showed that it was suffering with a highly aggressive' wood decaying fungus, known as Ustulina deusta.

Four of the tree's limbs', each weighing about three tonnes, were hanging over the road, and the trust said the disease meant that it was impossible to predict when these might give way. A cross section of the tree showed that only 47 per cent of it was sound wood. A replacement tree might be planted nearby.

For full story see this week's Westmorland Gazette.