Lovely as they are, wild roses have a lot of thorns at eye level on
arching stems, more than most other roses. If they grow alongside a
public path and could obstruct/ scratch pedestrians or even road
cyclists, that's perhaps why they were cut back.

Hi,

Thanks for your answer... It was a question of whether we pull the remains
out if they are not going to grow back and replace them with something a
little less viscious... We normally cut them down at this time of year to
about 12-18 inches, but you are right... they border a public footpath
(although on the other side of the path is a public playing field so really,
there isn't any call for someone brushing by the roses, but I guess that's
not the point!)

Gareth