"Snowman" wrote in message
...
Are they leylandii? If so, a tree surgeon told me that you can chop
down
one-third of the height at any one time and the trees will be fine.

I might be being a bit dim, but if you cut them by a third, would you not
then be cutting into old wood? Surely you need to cut into old wood to get
the height reduced over time?

I know what you mean, perhaps I should've said "dead wood" rather than "old
wood". As long as there's still green growth then the tree will regenerate.
If you cut into where there's only brown growth the tree won't regrow. When
my trees were cut down twice (a third each time) they were still green at
the point they were cut.

We had a few tree surgeons visit to give us advice and free estimates.