Mystery solved by Ken,

The area where the tree is, and the remnants of a building, used to be a sidings area where there was a connection onto the main railway line. There was a rail track from Thornton Rock, the old quarry, that ran under the main road with waggons of stone which were then transfered into waggons to be transported on the railway. If you look in the site photos under Thornton, Local areas you will find a couple of my photos which will explain it.

I have seen somewhere some old photos of the area, but where I can't remember, will try and find them.

 
 Forgot to tell you i had a pm from Ken about this, i looked for the tree whilst going past to Skipton in the car today but could not see it from the road. Will take some photo,s of it soon when next walking there.

I have big plans for a revamp of the front garden which will involve a bit of construction. I also want to plant a couple more hawthorn trees and possibly a blackthorn hedge. My 'theme' (you always have to have a theme if you're going to be posh, don't you?) will be Northern British, with references to Celtic folklore.

This is the info that accompanied it:

Araucaria or Monkey Puzzle trees are very slow growing evergreen trees and are best planted as a single specimen or in groups away from other hardy trees.

They will grow in all soil types (though permanently boggy is not advisable) and anywhere except very exposed sites. The best soil is the oddity of moist but well-drained. They are even happy growing on the coast and remain unaffected by salty spray.

If bought as younf plants ex 9cm pots, then you may wish to grow them on in pots before planting out. They are slow growing, taking many years to reach maturity and expect a growth rate of approx 3m in 10 years.

Best grown in full sun to partial shade and only flower and produce seeds after 40 years. [Yes, 40 years! Not a typo]. They are dioecious (separate male and female trees) and the female grows much taller. There is unfortunately no way of knowing which you have until then.

I'll keep this one in a pot for a few years till it's strong enough to cope on its own, and I've also decided to give my nephew one as his first birthday present.

I was wondering why it's called a Monkey Puzzle Tree and Wikipedia supplied the answer. When it was first introduced to England, before it had an official name, a woman commented that it would certainly puzzle a monkey trying to climb it and the name stuck, even though there are no monkeys in its native habitat and if there were, they'd be cut to pieces on the ascent.

How is the tree doing Cally.

I resurrected this thred thinking it was really old. I can't believe it was only January!!!!