Cumbria is home to UK’s biggest cherry tree

May 2010: Measuring a massive 5.3metres (18ft) around its trunk, a wild cherry tree in Cumbria is possibly the largest of its kind in the UK.

Weighing in at the size of a mature oak, it has been festooned with cascades of brilliant white blossom.

Yorkshire had boasted the UK's largest wild cherry, with a tree that measured 5.7metres (18.8ft( but a freak storm snapped the tree's crown in 2008.

During April and May the Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Hunt has been running its Cherry Tree Bloomsday Proiect, in partnership with CherryAid (the FoodLoversBritain.com campaign to save the British cherry), in order to get people to add old cherry tree data on to its interactive website in hopes of finding a new champion tree.

'It produces the most deliciously flavoured cherries'

Neil Cruikshank, who lives in a house overlooking the Cumbrian tree, said: "Unusually for a wild cherry, it produces the most deliciously flavoured cherries. In fact, in July the tree bends to the great weight of fruit on the branches and we can usually gather enough to make 8lb of cherry jam without even having to use a ladder. ‘It is a beautiful tree in every season with its white blossom in spring and deep red foliage in the autumn.'

Edward Parker, Ancient Tree Hunt project manager at the Woodland Trust, said: ‘This cherry must be one of the most beautiful and magnificent trees in the whole of the UK, yet cherry is not necessarily the first species people think of when looking for an ancient tree.

‘It might not have the hulking grandeur of a 1,000-year-old oak or the great age of one of our fantastic yew trees (which can live to be more than 4,000 years old), but with its beautifully fluted trunk and huge canopy of striking white blossom in spring this tree makes a truly spectacular sight.'

The Ancient Tree Hunt is run by the Woodland Trust in partnership with more than 70 organisations. Its aim is to record at least 100,000 ancient, veteran and notable trees by the end of 2011, and to date more than 63,000 trees have been registered. The database held at www.AncientTreeHunt.org.uk is the first living record of the UK's old trees ever attempted.

Anyone can record an interesting tree by visiting the website and following the simple instructions.