Rock Ferry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rock Ferry is an area of Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

The area is served by Rock Ferry railway station operated by Merseyrail. Regular services (every fifteen minutes) operate northbound to Liverpool via Birkenhead and southbound to Chester and Ellesmere Port.

[edit] History

In the 17th century there were references to a manor house, Derby House, standing over most of the grounds covered by present day Rock Ferry. Residential building did not really happen until the early part of the 19th century, the rise of the ferry, and the establishment of the Royal Rock Hotel and bathhouse in 1836. Between then and 1870, the area received an influx of luxurious housing, the villas of Rock Park and many other large houses around the Old Chester Road making Rock Ferry a particualrly desirable place to live. In the later part of the 19th century, Rock Ferry expanded due to the need to house the increasing population of workers, especially at the Cammell Laird plants in Tranmere.

The decline of local industries in the 1950s took its toll, and by the 1980s the area had a bad reputation for crime. Many of the spendid buildings were dilapidated and unrestored, while the building of a large council estate towards Tranmere did little to help matters. This decline was reflected in the loss of the Royal Rock Hotel, as well as many of the shops in the Old Chester Road and Bedford Road; whereas before Bedford Road had supported a wine merchant, a jeweller, two tailors, three banks, and two bookshops, most shops stood vacant. Large-scale regeneration work in the 1990s, which involved the demolition or restoration of many such derelict properties, and the building of new housing, means that the area has since improved considerably.

A ferry service from Rock Ferry pier to Liverpool existed from the 18th century until 30th June 1939. Although the ferry landing stage was removed in 1957 and the terminal building demolished, the pier now forms part of Tranmere Oil Terminal, although much modified. A stone slipway originally used by the ferry service also remains. ^[1]

The Naval training school vessels HMS Conway and HMS Indefatigable were moored in the Mersey near the pier until the early years of the Second World War, when they were moved to avoid damage.

Rock Ferry is also the home of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club.

[edit] Architecture and Famous Residents

The best-known part of Rock Ferry is Rock Park, on the banks of the River Mersey, an area of large Victorian villas of sandstone from Storeton quarry. The houses were built between 1837 and 1850, and were the first early Victorian properties to be designated listed buildings. The lodge and nine other houses were demolished in the 1970s to make way for the New Ferry By-Pass (A41), including Hawthorne House, number 26, the former house of Nathaniel Hawthorne when he was consul to Liverpool in the 1850s. The property was subsequently owned by astronomer Isaac Roberts, who installed a seven-inch refractor in a revolving dome on the top floor. Immediately after the building of the bypass, the remainder of Rock Park was quickly designated a conservation area in 1979.

Other areas of architectural significance include Egerton Park, an oasis of late ninteenth-century villas in a leafy setting, and the Byrne Avenue Baths, a very original 1930s swimming pool with plenty of impressive Art Deco features. The row of semi-detached houses on Rockville Street, built in 1837, is one of the earliest rows of private houses in Britain to use Gothic detailing on their exteriors, while St Anne's Catholic Church on Highfield Road was designed by E. W. Pugin. F. E. Smith, later Earl of Birkenhead, also briefly lived in a house on Green Lawn. However, it is perhaps fair to say that more recent developments and residents have not been as illustrious.