Glastonbury's historic Holy Thorn attacked by vandals

Within hours of a sprig of Holy Thorn being cut from the tree in St John's Churchyard to be sent to the Queen in order for her to decorate her Christmas dining table in a tradition that dates back over 100 years, vandals have attacked the Historic Holy Thorn tree on the summit of Wearyall Hill in Glastonbury.

Police are currently investigating the overnight attack on the tree, which in legend is believed to have grown when Joseph of Arimathea visited Somerset nearly 2,000 years ago and stuck his staff into the ground at that spot. The staff is thought by many to have once belonged to Jesus, and while most hawthorns only flower in the spring, the holy thorns of Glastonbury flower at both Christmas and Easter, and is therefore symbolic of the birth and resurrection of Jesus. While this thorn is not the original tree it is believed to be a descendant of it, having been grown from a cutting of the original and as such is a major visiting point to many pilgrims and tourists who arrive in Glastonbury.

The iconic tree which has proudly been displayed as the Glastonburypeople masthead for the past 6 months or so, has been protected by a metal cage to discourage such vandalism, yet from what we have been led to believe the vandals first tried to remove the cage in order to dig up the whole tree. Once this failed they then resorted to lopping off the branches leaving an iron encased stump.  This means that with the stump still intact the tree should grow back in due course, although we won't know until the spring.

Rumours are now circulating that four men with a chainsaw conducted the act, although if this was true I am surprised that more people didn't heard the noise as a chainsaw in the dead of night would surely have been easily audible from the hill which has houses surrounding it on both sides.

Police are appealing for any witnesses to the attack to come forward and if you have any information they can be contacted on 0845 456 7000.  PC Mark Edgington said "We are pursuing a number of lines of enquiry and we will follow this through in terms of trying to find who was responsible.  We would like anyone who has any information to contact us and we will treat it very seriously". The felled branches have now been taken away to Glastonbury Abbey for safekeeping. What do you think of this attack on one of our most well known landmarks?  Please let us know.           

More on the story here.