Shrub with berries

It sounds like Pyracantha which comes with red or orange berries , it can be trained but be warned it has lethal thorns which can be 2ins long and are very painful if they get you.. not really sure I'd want it round my doorway although its often used to deter burglars around windows or against boundary fences..
I have one and its covered in red berries at the moment.. and it looks splendid in the mid-Winter..

Sounds like Cotoneaster to me if it's got tiny leaves. It comes in vertical or horizontal form and is fairly self supporting up walls and can be trained. No thorns and the birds only seem to eat the berries if desperate. It therefore gives good colour through the winter.

Sounds like pyrocantha to me too tanith. We have a brick wall outside the kitchen window on which we have a yellow one, an orange one and a red one. How did you guess that we love them?

Pyrocantha has thorns, cotoneaster hasn't. I once knocked on a door and asked the householder what a particular shrub was. You could try that?

Oh don't say that. I've got one in the back garden which has become very woody and shades what used to be a good area for growing herbs. I'd decided to dig it out [I didn't get any berries this year; was covered in them last year]. The ones I've planted in the front garden seem to be taking a long time to establish themselves. I might just cut it back and see if that works. I do love the colours. Maybe I could replace it with a much larger specimen than the ones out the front? The trellis that it's attached to has come away from the fence with the weight of it, but, being a firethorn I can't get to fix it without tearing myself to shreds. Cotoneaster is invasive, I believe, and you're not supposed to put it in the green waste bins, but burn it.

Needs brutal clipping if you want it to look tidy and controlled like that.

I have trained a cotoneaster as an espalier against a rather dull wall. Easier than pyracanthus because of the thorns. The berries don't seem to be that tasty to the birds as they are the last berries to be eaten

I agree. It sounds like cotoneaster. The birds have started on mine now that they've exhausted the yellow Rowan berries.

Oh, thanks everyone. I knew I could rely on GNers to come up with the goods. Such a wealth of knowledge and understanding here.

I can't see anything locally that looks anything like the one I saw from the car, but I'm still keeping my eyes open on walks - when I don't have to keep my eyes on the puddles.

I don't think I'd want thorns around the door, mainly for the postman's sake. So I will settle for cotoneaster.

Looking at the RHS site there seems to be a lot of different ones so I will have to choose carefully, but it has to be better than the roses and clematis that don't earn their keep at the moment.

Thanks again.

Versavisa have you thought about Winter flowering Jasmine that can be trained easily and it has bright yellow flowers that look like stars. I have one on my front fence , its been in flower since early December and is still quite well covered.