Big fire tonight in the lovely old house that was part of Rockferry High, listed building such a shame it was a grand house.. wonder how that started?

Ravenswood. I think we all knew this was coming but we hoped it wouldn’t

Big hole in the roof round one of the chimneys but with so much woodwork inside the building its difficult to tell how much damage has been done.

Full marks to the fire services.

Still damping down this afternoon. Structure doesn't generally look like its been over-cooked.

Nothing to stop the whole area being built on now I suppose!

No patch of green anywhere along the eastern side of Wirral is safe from shoddy little houses being crammed onto it!

Should try and get that or at least part of it habitable and put someone in to look after it , otherwise eventually it will go like so many other listed buildings go , up in flames gone forever...

That is why scaffolding is there, it is supposed to be getting turned into flats. Developer said it would cost £1m before the fire to refurbish thanks to council not maintaining it.

Probable perpetrators were caught on the site's security CCTV, only a matter of time before they get the knock on the door.

Ravenswood has had its structural survey and it is classed as having 20% damage but is structurally sound.

The building was insured.

They are going to remove and store the chimneys and part of the roof as a precaution in case of high winds. They are also allocating community patrol 24/7 alongside Occulus the current security firm.

Torus, the developers, are still intending to rebuild it.

Good , I’m glad , such a lovely house . I used to clean it years ago during my stint as a school cleaner. Used to love it when I was there on my own , thinking about all the grand people going down that lovely staircase.

I used to be around after school quite a bit, there were a couple of cleaners looking busy in Ravenswood, you'd go back an hour later and they were still doing the banister. I think they just preferred being in that building than the rest of the school. I quite liked the main building as well, the new concrete buildings were just trash.

Ravenswood seems to be the building that refuses to die. I joined Rock Ferry in Sep 1983 and I recall Ravenswood was inaccessible thanks to scaffolding and boards as there had recently been a fire (fellow students used to mention names of people they said had committed the arson attack but won't mention the names here). Once restored, it was a 6th form building. Around the back, you could still see names and dates that had been scratched into the stones and the concrete over the years, some dating back to the 50s and even before. You could get a real sense of History of the place. I was only ever allowed in there once to sit a biology exam I'd missed in 1985 or 86 IIRC, but it was a handsome building with beautiful features.
I was saddened to hear of the demolition of my school but was happy that one part of it would continue to exist, albeit as flats. I hope that this latest damage is superficial and that the building can be saved again.

Hi Edward, see you've just joined so welcome.....nice to read your post about Ravenswood I've often wondered about the History of it and who lived their in the past . There is some information but not a lot.
Like reading posts from other parts of the world, how are you managing with this Corona virus?

Hi Cools. Apart from what I've already written, I know nothing else about Ravenswood's History. Have you seen this video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtBRGzdQ3I

One of the guys from my year, Stacy Conroy, made this video just before the place was demolished. Sad to watch it, but it brought back loads of good memories. Over here, coronavirus means we are under a curfew, which pretty much means lockdown. We've got around 190 infected cases and 7 deaths, so nothing like back home! How about you guys?
.

Yes I have seen that video , it's a good one. Pretty bad here with this virus but London seems to worse for it. We in lockdown and really should only be going out for essential shopping, medical reason or excercise meaning maybe a walk pretty much near home and if course social distancing..A lot of people not adhering to it though . We'll all just have to pray that things will get back to normal soon but I guess we've all got to be patient and do what we're told.