Hard to say for sure - certainly the one you mention by name, Grace, is described as a 'very thorny' shrub rose. Sometimes the thorns become denser and more of them as a bush grows more mature, but the other possibility is that you have sucker growth in amongst the other stems. Suckers arise from below the graft point at the base of the bush, are usually very prickly rather than thick, hard thorns, tend to grow very tall rather rapidly and have leaves which are often a paler colour than the 'proper' bush, with more leaflets than the original too. If, though, your extra prickly stems are not coming from below the graft point, then that's just the way your roses are growing as they age.

thank you bamboo, no they are not suckers, as it is all of the stems, except one or 2 which are thornless!! all very strange. It looks really angry. lol

What's interesting is that, as usual, David Austin does not mention the thorny habit of 'Grace' - only its positive attributes are mentioned.

thanks guys will let you know the outcome.

this is strange, I have 2 graces, one has normal thorns the other hundreds, and I think if all roses were like this I wouldnt have any. I am going to e mail austin. thnks x

Grace was introduced in 2001 - it may be, like a lot of comparatively recent introductions, that it does not reliably hold its form, Patricia. If you bought two the same though, I certainly think its worth contacting David Austin.

will do bamboo let you know outcome, and thanks