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A friendly sight for countless Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê staff and students, the bean tree was sadly condemned to the axe when it was deemed to be rotten to the core, and therefore a safety risk.

Tony Overbury, of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Estates & Facilities superintended the felling of the tree. He said: "Two groups of scientists at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê have already asked for slices of the trunk to run experiments on, but we don't know yet whether the trunk is too rotten for their purposes. Other members of the Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê community have requested pieces of the tree to keep as mementos."

The bean tree's spot in the Front Quad will not remain vacant, however, as Tony has ordered a 20-year-old, semi-mature Indian bean tree, which will shortly be shipped over from Germany to fill the spot where its predecessor stood.

Tony said: "We're pretty confident that we should be able to get the new bean tree to flourish - but with the threatened hosepipe ban over the summer of 2006, we're not sure how we will continue to irrigate the rest of the Front Quad this year."

To find out more about Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Estates & Facilities, use the link at the bottom of the article.

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