Hi Susie,

You may be cutting it fine to prune the rose now as it will be starting to set flower buds but you could take out branches that are growing inwards or crossing each other to give the remainder room to grow.

If you want to trim back the longest branches take them down by about 1/3 now, cutting back to an outward facing bud.

If you put up wires now you'll have something to tie back to - the trellis looks too narrow to show off a climbing rose. And you could train the rose along the wires.

Should there be another photo? I can't see anything that loks like gooseberries?

I agree about putting up more wires or another trellis. Climbers flower a lot more freely when the stems are trained horizontal. The way it is now you may get lots of flowers at the top and nothing lower down.

Thanks for your replies. I have just had a go at the rose but I am not good with roses and the stems are so old and thick I don't think I could train them across. Or do you mean any shoots that come off the old wood need training across. I have chopped the tops off, but could not find an outward growing bud, they all seem to be growing inwards.

I wouldn't worry about trying to train the old growth but try spreading out new shoots. Some roses really appreciate horizontal growth for flowering.

That stem on the left hand side might be amenable to being brought down a bit to more of an angle though which would help. If you get more tall growth at the top you could train it across the top of the fence rather than chopping it off perhaps? Some roses are just stiffer than others. The ones on our arch are really too stiff to train too, even when they are young. In fact they are under threat of being replaced with a variety thats easier to bend.
But next spring you can be more drastic in your pruning - they will shoot from lower down. Give it a good feed with rose food and perhaps a nice mulch.

Thank you for your help. I will have another look at this and do the best I can for this summer.

Nice camellia by the way!
Have you thought of asking at Age UK (or local groups) whether they have any who could help you with the garden while you settle in.