On Monday I'll try the people who offered to remove the stump and see where they are at, but don't expect much from them. I'll try for a couple of estimates. It's a big old house and I feel sometimes the quotes double when people see that. £350 is 3 werks money for me and I can't keep spending money as the money I'll get for it will be very dependant on how far I've got before money runs out and I'm forced to sell. Going to delay the project a few days.
I had to do the same job recently. I was dreading it, but it was nowhere near as bad as I thought. I had 3 to do. I bought a cheap electric chainsaw and about 6 cheap blades that I could afford to just scrap when they went blunt. The roots are not very deep as someone else here said. I dug down about 1.5 to 2 feet until I had the majority of the large roots uncovered. Then I severed these with the chain saw. A lot of the smaller roots I cut with a shovel.
Cutting the roots with the chainsaw was not too bad. The soil and stones etc did nothing for the blades but I only used 3 of the 6 I had. Once I'd severed all of the roots I got a long (about 2M) piece of mild steel box and hammered it as far under the root ball/stump as I could. I made a fulcrum out of wood and blocks and then levered the root ball up. It took a bit of work but it came out. It took me about half a day to do each stump.