The plot thickens. At the end of the Daily Mail article, it says that the land on which the tree stands is owned by the bloke who ran the West Country firm Crown Currency. That company collapsed last month with debts of £20 million plus. My niece and her husband live in that part of the world and had booked and paid for a couple of thousand US dollars with this company prior to a trip to the States - they lost the lot! There are others who had overseas house purchase money tied up with Crown Currency and lost property as a result. I can see that there would be many disgruntled potential axe-wielders but taking it out on a blameless tree is totally uncalled for. However, as has been said earlier, the tree is still alive and it looks capable of growing back in time.