Cutting a tree down by a couple of feet?

Frank99

We have tree called a Picea Breweriana at the bottom of our small garden which was here when we moved in, we love this tree and it is about the height of the house guttering however, i would like to make a bit more manageable for me to trim in the summer maybe closer to the height of the tree in front, i don't want it to go any higher as i won't be able to reach the top but i also hate killing trees when so many neighbours have destroyed all of theirs.
The RHS website claims it never needs pruning and so i have just been pinching out the small one inch growths that happen every spring, unfortunately despite using ladders litter claws i can't quite reach the very top ones.
I am concerned that if i cut it down a couple of feet it would ruin the look or spoil it, i thought it might sprout a new leader at the top to give the xmas tree shape again but I'm stumped as to what to do no pun intended.
Any ideas folks?

twopenny

I had some of these once and had to do that but top pruning wasn't satisfactory. They dated from the 30's or 40's.

Taking the top out will give you two new leaders so certainly change the shape. The next time you do it you will get more but it looked ok. It was slowish to recover but it didn't stop it growing so an ongoing job.

Eventually the tree being very old someone took 5ft off and the top part died and was bare.

I never solved the problem as I then sold the house.

Hopefully someone can come up with a soloution.

[Deleted User]

Ooooh, i don't know about this ..... let's see what some conifer-knowing peeps say, if it were me i'd ask a tree surgeon to look at it.
It seems a shame to  alter its profile but i totally get where you're coming from 😏