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Posted By: chriskay Rock Park - 28th Aug 2009 1:37pm
Rock Park was once one of the most desirable places to live in Birkenhead. I spent some time here yesterday, looking at the fine houses, now all in flats. The park is split in two now by the by-pass & there's constant traffic noise where there would have been peace & quiet.
The American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, rented a house here while he was American consul in Liverpool. The house is now gone, but a single gatepost remains.


Nathaniel Hawthorne 1853.

“Passages from the English Notebooks”

ROCK PARK.
September 2nd. We got into our new house in Rock Park yesterday. It is quite a good house, with three apartments, beside kitchen and pantry on the lower floor; and it is three stories high, with four good chambers in each story. It is a stone edifice, like almost all the English houses, and handsome in its design. The rent, without furniture, would probably have been one hundred pounds; furnished, it is one hundred and sixty pounds. Rock Park, as the locality is called, is private property, and is now nearly covered with residences for professional people, merchants, and others of the upper middling class; the houses being mostly built, I suppose, on speculation, and let to those who occupy them. It is the quietest place imaginable, there being a police station at the entrance, and the officer on duty allows no ragged or ill-looking person to pass. There being a toll, it precludes all unnecessary passage of carriages; and never were there more noiseless streets than those that give access to these pretty residences. On either side there is thick shrubbery, with glimpses through it of the ornamented portals, or into the trim gardens with smooth-shaven lawns, of no large extent, but still affording reasonable breathing space. They are really an improvement on anything, save what the very rich can enjoy, in America. The former occupants of our house (Mrs. Campbell and family) having been fond of flowers, there are many rare varieties in the garden, and we are told that there is scarcely a month in the year when a flower will not be found there.


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Description: Gatepost to Nathaniel Hawthorne's house
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Description: One of the fine old gas lamps, now converted to electicity.
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Posted By: Wheels Re: Rock Park - 28th Aug 2009 1:47pm
aww you missed my old house, mine was the one with the Subway entrance at the front. takes me back smile
Posted By: Doctor_Frick Re: Rock Park - 28th Aug 2009 2:33pm
Some great buildings in there
Posted By: chriskay Re: Rock Park - 28th Aug 2009 4:05pm
Originally Posted by Wheels
aww you missed my old house, mine was the one with the Subway entrance at the front. takes me back smile


Sorry about that, Wheels; I remember seeing the subway, which side of the by-pass were you?
Posted By: oxtonmac Re: Rock Park - 28th Aug 2009 8:44pm
I think that gas lamp is only 1 of a couple that still exist on the wirral .

anyone know of any more ?

my dad had on years ago he stripped it back to the lovely copper and brass and fitted it with new glass.

I would love it now, but he fell on hard times and sold it !!!
Posted By: MissGuided Re: Rock Park - 29th Aug 2009 9:36am
Did any of the properties get demolished when they built the by-pass?
Posted By: bri445 Re: Rock Park - 29th Aug 2009 10:05am
Great photos. In a certain way the bye-pass may have helped to preserve the Park from any further desecration. It's a pity the esplanade could not tbe brought up to the same standard as the houses.
Here's a photo with the sun shining!


Description: 'The Firs'
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Posted By: bri445 Re: Rock Park - 29th Aug 2009 10:31am
Nathaniel Hawthorne's description of the 'Idyllic' Park.

(From 'Birkenhead News' article re 'battle of the bye-pass', 1967)

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Posted By: SUExx Re: Rock Park - 29th Aug 2009 5:20pm
i went through rock park only recently, the first time for many years. Reading that description of rock park it sounds as if its from a novel and you can almost visualise the horse and carriages and the smell of flowers.
Posted By: chriskay Re: Rock Park - 29th Aug 2009 6:52pm
Originally Posted by Snooze
Did any of the properties get demolished when they built the by-pass?


Quite a lot, I think. Shame; why didn't they go the other side of New Chester Rd?
Posted By: bert1 Re: Rock Park - 29th Aug 2009 7:10pm
From A perambulation of the hundred of wirral

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Posted By: Christine12 Re: Rock Park - 24th Sep 2009 10:32pm
I love Rock Park - I love the old gate posts as you go in. There was a lot of uproar about the new building of flats as you enter the second road of Rock Park. They've eventually become occupied but has anyone seen the state of the grassland area as you go in? It seems a big shame that it looks like a dumping ground when you're driving into such a lovely area...
Posted By: buddy Re: Rock Park - 7th Dec 2009 1:15pm
Thanks for all the photos and info on Rock Park - brought back memories for me - I lived in the top floor flat of No 20 for nearly a year when I was married in 1965 - and travelled to St Helens daily by Train/bus!!
Spooky place at night though!!!
Posted By: buddy Re: Rock Park - 7th Dec 2009 8:56pm
Originally Posted by summer01
was this grade listed and do you know any thing about the oringinal house?


Don't know if it was grade listed - at the time it was let out as furnished accomodation - owner (Mrs Johnson) at ground level, 1st and 2nd floors let out
Posted By: Wheels Re: Rock Park - 8th Dec 2009 6:38am
Originally Posted by chriskay
Originally Posted by Wheels
aww you missed my old house, mine was the one with the Subway entrance at the front. takes me back smile


Sorry about that, Wheels; I remember seeing the subway, which side of the by-pass were you?


I was on the water side (the side you took the pics)

I will upload some pics of mine later.
Posted By: uptoncx Re: Rock Park - 8th Dec 2009 6:44am
All of the houses in Rock Park were Listed Grade II on 13th March 1973; the entrance gate posts and sea wall were listed on 10th August 1992.

The description of numbers 20/21 from the listing is as follows:

Quote
Pair of houses. c1836. Stucco rusticated to ground floor with Welsh slate roof. Neo-classical style, 2 storeys, symmetrically-designed, each house a 2-window range double-pile plan with side entrance. Slightly advanced outer bays with canted bay window to ground floor and 12-pane sash above in moulded architrave. Central bays have tripartite sash windows to ground floor, and 12-pane sash window above in moulded architrave with panelled apron and double string course. Angle quoins, eaves cornice. Return elevations have central round arched doorway with entablature carried on paired console brackets.

All windows in No.21 have been lowered, and mouldings and rustication removed; it is included for group value.

No.20 has square gate piers with stepped pyramidal cap and cast iron gates with acanthus motif.

The houses form part of the original development of Rock Park, laid out in 1836 by Jonathan Bennison.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Hubbard E: Cheshire: Harmondsworth: 1971-).


Posted By: RUDEBOX Re: Rock Park - 9th Dec 2009 1:26pm
I see in today wirral news that the council is consulting English Heritage about restoring the listed structure ??! Pp 12-13
Posted By: RUDEBOX Re: Rock Park - 9th Dec 2009 2:05pm
That pretty much is it! Could someone throw a linky up for summer plz (dunno how). The article, also has other areas up for re-generation so may warrant a new topic.
Posted By: little_pob Re: Rock Park - 10th Dec 2009 12:57pm
Six ambitious projects to transform Wirral’s coastline from Rock Ferry to Eastham unveiled - Rock Park mention is towards the bottom of the story.
Posted By: RUDEBOX Re: Rock Park - 10th Dec 2009 1:45pm
Thanks.
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