[Thrift]

If you are really set on the dreaded conifer I do remember some highly esteemed member of 'Gardeners' World'......could have been Chris Beardshaw recommending Thuja as it is more amenable!

For myself it would be a lovely native mix with all the flowers and berries.

Good luck!

[tode]

No, not thuja, please.  Just like leylandii, but smells of Brent crude       

[Casey76]

Yew grows really quickly (I inherited a yew hedge and I massacred it the first time I tried to trim it, yet a year later it's looking twice as bad!

I know I should rerally trim it twice a year, but I'm not awful handy with hedge trimmers lol ('n my neighbrous are starting to give me meaningful looks  )

[Kristen]

I disagree with Thuja being as bad as Leylandii. Not as fast, but that also means that it doesn't get out of hand so easily either.  It will also regrow somewhat if cut back (which Leylandii won't, other than its top). I've had several at various houses over the years, although I only know of Thuja plicata atrovirens, so maybe that is a better cultivar than just "Thuja"?

If you are thinking of planting a few feet forward of the existing hedge, and assuming the existing face of the hedge is in good shape, you could perhaps "re-use" the current hedge.  There are some picture son My Blog of a revitalised Leylandii hedge I saw on my travels:

http://kgarden.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/reviving-a-leylandii-hedge/

[Stablechooks]

Decided!!!- New hedge will be hornbeam. Will pull a new trench 1 m back from stump line and backfill with fresh topsoil. Will get a job lot of osmocote slow release fertiliser and then mulch with muck and lawn clippings.

Am still a little concerned with leaving stumps in as may increas risk of honey fungus?

Thanks for all the great responses.

[tode]

Great, I'm sure you'll get far more pleasure fom hornbeam than you would from Leyl or Thuja.  Specially in Spring and Autumn.

I suggested pulling the stumps out to make it easier to mow. If that's not a problem, or if money's a bit tight, I wouldn't worry too much;

Good luck either way

[madcat]

And the small birds will love you!  Sparrows, dunnocks, blackbirds, robins ...  A whole new estate for them to colonise ...    

[Stablechooks]

Thanks Tode, trouble with pulling stumps out is ... then what ?  From past experience they take ages to burn and these are likely to be 6foot in diameter... and I will have 28 of them. Would cost a fortune to have them carted off!

[tode]

Yeah, I know. Just a rough guess, but maybe £600, depending on how big they are (don't even think about trying to burn em ! )
But once they're gone, they're gone.  If you're not too worried about losing forty or sixty m2, then leave em.  Just try to get em cut as low as poss.

Just thought: if you have em cut flush, then you could try to get a few trucks of earth (ditch cleaning)  in to spread over them, maybe. Cheaper ?

Good luck with em, anyway.

[tam]

Are your trunks really that large? We recently had a 30yr old hedge removed and the trunks were still only about 6" across. We got guys in to do it and they stripped all the branches off then used a pully and rope to pull the trunks over canter leaver off each other. So rope at top of one and bottom of other and wound up until the one with the top rope fell over. Not sure if I explained it well. We had kept them pruned yearly though so the highest was 12/14' ish.

As an aside, we also has a thuja on the end which we've kept. I've never noticed it smelling though!

Might be worth getting an expert to look at your hedge they might be able to trim it neatly. If you're going for leaving it 15' then it's not like you'll see the bare bit anyway unless your in a helicopter

[Faz]

Build yourself a stumpery (this is a real word honest  - look it up!)