Small tree wanted - inspiration please!!

[Alchemilla]

Arbutus unedo is a very handsome plant, but never grow it for its edible qualities, the fruit are technically edible but taste awful. It also grows quite big , albeit slowly.

That seems to depend on personal taste (and maybe on the cultivar?) according to the Plants for a Future guys:
"Most of us who have tried the fruit raw like it, and a few of us actually like it enough to eat in quantity. Some people, however, fully agree with the person who gave the plant its Latin name and will not touch it. The fruit can also be cooked and is used to make delicious and nourishing jams and preserves."

Although in its native range it does seem to be used most commonly for making brandy...

Has anybody tried it?

[elleme]

I've tried Arbutus fruit and it's rather gritty with hardly any flavour. If I ever planted arbutus it would be as an ornamental evergreen, not for fruit at all. I haven't tried it cooked. There's a cultivar which is more compact, 'Elfin King'.

Loquat fruit is lovely and I think it makes quite a good-looking tree with its large leaves. No idea how well it fruits in the UK though.

[AkionTotocha]

Some Satsumas are hardy to -10c and don't grow very big for citrus trees... They're expensive though, so if you wanted something fun to do you could grab a bunch of satsumas and eat them, saving any seeds, peel the slippy white shell off the seed to leave the brown kernel and plant that indoors, in theory you should get your first fruits in two - three years.

But I third that Gisela 5 is a bit of a wimp. I got a sweetheart grafted to Gisela 5 and put in the ground and it just... Gave up! It just went 'no thanks' and died!? ?!?

Bearing in mind in my patch I have a massive cherry and a massive plum, and behind the wall many many cherry trees that produce very sweet but small cherries.

Better to get a cherry on Colt rootstock and try pruning aggressively to a "Spanish Bush" kind. It does seem better to get a more aggressive rootstock and prune hard than a weaker rootstock and nurse it through