Removing large gravel and making a lawn area on a budget, advice wanted please!

Grenage

One for the rook, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow. 

You generally need four times the seed you expect, and it should be lightly raked over. 

Seed isn't any more effort than turf.  You still need to level and prepare the ground with turf.  It will go all peaks and troughs eventually otherwise.

You are definitely better off waiting until autumn either way really.

FlorayG

Remember the rules; you can have it two out of
1)cheap,
2)quality 
3) Quick
but you can't have all three. So if you want it done on a budget and to look really nice, you're going to need to do it bit by bit and wait for the result ( e.g. grass seed vs turf, seed is cheap but not quick, turf is quick but not cheap, both will give you quality but seed is much more work)

FreeBear

If the hedge was privet, the roots shouldn't need much work. A stump grinder to get the stumps out, the rest of the roots will die off without causing any problems.

Apodemus

Having a large driveway that is doing its very best to turn into a lawn, I wonder if the simplest way would just be to level the gravel, scatter grass seed into it and give it a light raking.  Then keep it well watered until the grass establishes itself.  Grass doesn't need deep roots and the gravel will soon disappear below the thatch.  

FreeBear

Is it still being used as a driveway to park vehicles on ?

The wheels will churn up some nice muddy ruts after a while. The best way to reduce that problem is to put some gravel grids down. Means digging up the top 50mm, but the spoil can go back to fill the holes in the grids.

Alternatively, lay two rows of slabs and grass between them. But you need a solid, well prepared base for any slabs (150-200 of MOT1, and ~25mm of sand to bed the slabs on to).

Apodemus

FreeBear, thanks.  I'm not wanting to hi-jack the thread.  My point was that my gravel driveway is growing grass quite nicely and a portion that I only use occasionally I now take the mower over, rather than the weedkiller.  So in my situation, I would have gained nothing by going through lots of work to get rid of the gravel and establish a lawn in the way that most posters to this thread envisage.  I'm just suggesting an alternative approach, using nothing more than some grass seed and a rake, that might solve the OP's issue with minimal cost and work.