I’m posting this as folklore as much as to see if anyone can confirm the tale, else it’s in danger of becoming newly minted ‘folklore for the future’, at least in Tyneside.
During the great storm of 1987, when trees all over England were toppled by sudden great winds (the storm the Met Office didn’t predict), many of the trees surrounding Wayland’s Smithy were uprooted. However, none of them fell inwards, thus protecting the barrow from damage.
Is this true? and if so, is there a nice tidy rational explanation, possibly to do with air pressure or soil density, that doesn’t require the invocation of protective tree spirits?