Video shows one of Britain's tallest trees which sits in a suburban garden - so massive the housing estate was built around it.

The Giant redwood stands at around 120ft - towering over the houses beside it which were constructed in the 1970s.

The Sequoiadendron giganteum once stood on a pig farm but was left alone when it became a red brick housing estate in Bristol.

It now sits in the garden of the home of the Cherry family - who moved in in 1987 - and say despite its size they love the tree.

The giant sequoia has a preservation order and sits just metres away from their front door.

They say the only problems are pigeons pooping on their cars - and a slightly shifting driveway.

Andy Cherry, 71, a retired lorry driver, said: "It's a great tree but it causes some problems in the driveway with the pigeons."

"My car was parked there for a couple of days and it was covered when I came back out. "

''I had to get the pressure washer out to get it off. It is a nuisance.

"But nobody's come up with a solution yet - they just park up and poo. Overall, we love it, it's a fantastic tree. "

''We always get the kids coming round at Christmas getting the pine cones for their decorations and we let them take them.

"It's so unique around here. It's incredible."

The tree is considered an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Fewer than 80,000 remain in its native California where they have been known to reach over 300ft tall and have a trunk diameter of nearly 30ft.

While the Cherry family's tree is not quite so big, and benefits from British climate and weather conditions so not to be endangered in the UK, it would still require a huge operation if it were ever to be removed.

Andy said: "A guy said to us a long while ago that to cut it down we'd need a crane – because we'd have to cut it in sections. It's massive, it's never going to fall down."

"The last time we had it done, it cost £500, it was a bit of a favour because I know the guy. And there was loads of dead wood and he took it all out which made a hell of a difference."

"If we could just get rid of the bloody pigeons I'd pay a fortune for it, because then we could park on the driveway again."

Andy's son, Michael, 28, claims that one passerby said the roots would extend all the way into Lawrence Weston and Filton, several miles away.

Bernadette Cherry, 67, said: "If we were to get permission to cut it down, we have been told that those areas would flood."

"The tree's been here a long long time. The drive didn't look like it does now when we moved in, as the roots have moved it. "

"We had a private survey done to make sure the roots weren't coming towards the house."

"We've never had a problem with the insurance though, because it's far enough away from the house."

The author of a specialist tree page on Instagram said the tree got lucky because the developers of the estate built around it.

thestreettree posted: ''Meet the Suburban Sequoia.

''Towering over a mid-century suburban Bristol estate, a giant redwood is a joyous, optimistic presence.

''Some urban trees get lucky, and that's what happened to the ever more colossal giant redwood on a 1970s estate in Filton.

''When the developers laid out the cul-de-sacs here, they mercifully left this magnificent tree where it was and built around it.

''A tree that would once have been a feature of a Victorian garden now graces the lawns of an optimistic mid century development.

''Species details, Giant redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum.''

Bernadette said: "It's beautiful, we get a lot of wildlife in there, a lot of squirrels, owls, woodpeckers and the like. "

"The only downfall is the pigeons – we can't keep the cars on the drive because they poop all night."

"It doesn't block that much sun. The sun still comes through because there are enough gaps."

"Apparently, in the right place in America, the trunks swell more, so they cut them out so cars can drive through them."

"But in this country the trunks don't swell as much because of the conditions, but even still it has grown loads since we came here."