Denise Brooks, manager of Shotton Community Centre, County Durham, told Sky News she could not believe it when she heard the tree had been chopped down.
“All of the memories and the history of the tree, it’s like… just gone. I think it’s been disgraceful to tell you the truth. I’m really hurt,” she said.
The tree in Shotton Colliery was chopped down between 10pm and 11pm on Wednesday, causing “huge upset”, according to Durham Police.
The force believes it was felled deliberately and have appealed for witnesses to come forward.
Police Constable David Allan said: “This was a disgusting act of mindless vandalism which has caused huge upset throughout the village at a time when our community should be coming together.
“We are treating this incident extremely seriously, and we will deal with anyone responsible as robustly as the law allows.
“This behaviour has no place in our community. Someone knows something – please help us find who is responsible.”
St Saviour’s, a local church, posted images of lights on the tree being turned on. A message on their Facebook account said: “May the people who caused this be caught and punished by the authorities.”
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Ms Brooks said the tree had been growing in the centre of the village as a sapling for the last 12 years and young people have developed a connection to it.
“They’ve grown up with the tree, we’ve nurtured the tree. So it’s like… they put a lot of care into it.”
She added that the village was planning to replace the lights, as the tree had grown so large.
“We were going to get new lights… and we were trying to get funding for it… and so we were talking about the future of the tree and now it’s not going to be there. We probably have to start again.”
She said that when she visited the felled tree, it reminded her of how locals felt about the loss of the Sycamore Gap tree, which was deliberately cut down and resulted in two men being jailed.
Police have urged anyone with information, including CCTV or doorbell footage, to contact them.
