Manchester Museum's 300 million-year-old fossil tree is one of the largest in the world. It has been on display in pride of place in the Museum's Fossils gallery since the 1880s.
It was discovered on 8th July 1886 at Clayton near Bradford and was described as the ‘finest specimen ever discovered’. The curators were so excited to see the specimen that they went by train from Manchester to see it. There is a picture of the trip in the Museum archive!
This species grew to about 30 metres tall, and perhaps surprisingly is closely related to mosses we see today.