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25
May
Bishop Monkton residents receive ‘death threats’ due to cockerel topiary felling
More than two years have passed since an extraordinary topiary in a village near Ripon was felled – but its impact still rumbles on.
A 30ft topiary cockerel stood proudly in front of a grade two-listed cottage called Burngarth in Bishop Monkton for more than 100 years until it was cut down in April 2024.
It had been a feature of the village for generations and its felling led to furore among villagers at the time.
But the ill-feeling appears to live on, as a post on the Bishop Monkton Together Facebook group by Dave Molyneux, who lives at Burngarth with his partner Linda, revealed the ordeal has led to the couple receiving “death threats”.
The threats came after, Mr Molyneux claimed, a Daily Mail article published last month, which reported the topiary had been replaced by a gargoyle.
Mr Molyneux's post last week said:
For those few in the village that [sic] feel the need to keep the story of the removal of the cockerel going, which in turn prompted the Daily Mail to write another completely one-sided article again, you should hang your heads in shame.
Since this article, we have now received death threats – YES, death threats – leaving us traumatised and in fear for ourselves. This cannot be right, death threats!
The cockerel in the 1920. Pic: Bishop Monkton Yesterday
Background
Mr Molyneux said cutting down the topiary was not a “rash decision”, and claimed the previous owners of the house had “neglected the cockerel regarding its size”.
He added:
With the height came the expanded width and depth of the bush, to an extent where it broke two panes of window glass and completely blocked out the light of two windows, leaving these rooms in complete darkness 365 days of the year.
The original bush was placed less than a metre away from the front of the house, causing substantial damage, and was never designed to be the size it was left to grow to.
If it had been kept at the size it had been for many years in the mid-eighties, the concerning elements wouldn’t have come into effect.
Mr Molyneux said the couple paid a “considerable amount of money” to the British Topiary Society to reduce the cockerel, but once work on it began, it became clear that “the growth inside was actually dead due to it not being maintained properly”.
The post added the impact of the hedge’s scale only became clear after they moved into Burngarth. The couple offered residents the chance to “rehome” the cockerel, but there were no takers.
The ordeal has left the couple with “deep scars”, Mr Molyneux said, adding they feel they are “being driven out of the village we loved”.
“This isn’t right or fair on us, and I’m sure if you had death threats, your views would be different”, the post said.
Mr Molyneux thanked “the majority of the village” for their support and said he hopes a line can be drawn under the issue.
The owners ‘tried to work with the cockerel’
At the time of the felling, Gary Cross, landlord of the Masons Arms in Bishop Monkton, defended the owners’ decision to fell the cockerel.
He said:
It was a pretty big object and attraction. Some residents are very upset about it. But they don't have to live next to it.
With the beck flooding, a lot of their garden was subject to flooding and it held pools of water, which was difficult to deal with. The owners have been there two or three years and tried to work with the cockerel, but it had just become so big.
Mr Cross added residents had been “rude and vicious” about the situation but said the hedge had been “carefully cut”.
In addition, North Yorkshire Council launched an investigation into the felling following complaints of a potential breach of planning control.
However, in a letter to residents at the time, seen by the Stray Ferret, a planning enforcement officer said “no breaches” had taken place.
The officer concluded the cockerel was a hedge, not a tree, and therefore didn’t require the council’s consent to be cut down.
The case was closed after no planning breaches were identified.
The Stray Ferret contacted Mr Molyneux for comment, but we did not receive a response.
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