[Midas]

I have finally managed to remove approximately 500 mtrs of stock fencing and posts, which had been there for 20 years ish, so am quite chuffed with myself.  Along the fence line that was, some bramble bushes and a few bits of hawthorn have grown.  Could anyone tell me the best way of getting these out? I am gearing myself up for the Mother of all hedgerow battles!!!! 

[cloddopper]

Burning on top of the cut brambles & hawthorn works , so does cuttinmg then off just above ground level , as soon as you cut them & move the cutting away to one side spray  them with the recommended rate of SBK and some dirty engine oil mixed with a litre of diesel or paraffin  ( Special Brushwood Killer ) then when they have turned their toes up in a few months & haven't made any new greenery  get the bonfires a burning using the cut brambles & thornwood and some more dirty engine oil & diesel to get /keep it going .

 Other than that It's a long hard very time consuming slog to dig them out by hand .
However if you haver access to a digger or a mini excavator scooping out the roots after you have done the top cutting exercise is easy and so long as you drop the root balls for a decent height to loosen the soil  then move the roots to one side free of soil it wont be very long before you can collect and burn all the roots & waste in one go . 

Just don't have the burn up next to ripe wheat fields etc or other flammable stuff lest you start something you cannot control.

[Midas]

Thankyou Clodopper,
Very useful information.  I have been hacking away at one bush and pulled out five sheets of corragated tin!, in suprisingly good condition, there are 2 more sheets in there, so that will come in handy when I do up the barn.  I feel like I have found treasure!  Only 4 more bushes to trim then I will try and get a digger to dig the roots out.