Rock Ferry

Rock Ferry is an area of Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively it is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of the county of Cheshire. At the 2011 Census, the population was 14,298. There are references to a ferry as early as 1357. Ferry services were extended at the start of the 19th century, with steam ferries providing a faster, cheaper and more reliable service than had previously been allowed. By 1800 there was already an inn known as the Rock Ferry House, which was reputed to have been used by William IV as Duke of Clarence, hence the use of the term "Royal" for establishments such as the Royal Rock Hotel (the original inn, much enlarged in 1836) and the Royal Rock Beagles, set up in 1845. From the 1560s onwards Derby House, an occasional seat of the Minshull family, covered most of the grounds covered by present-day Rock Ferry. It was enlarged in 1834 to a design by Decimus Burton, who also laid out the first plans for the development of Rock Ferry. Thomas Oakshott, Mayor of Liverpool, lived there in the 19th century. The house, located on Rock Lane West close to the New Chester Road, was demolished in the 1930s. In 1836 the Royal Rock Hotel was extended and a bath house was built. In the following years the area received an influx of luxurious villa housing, the villas of Rock Park and many other large houses around the Old Chester Road making Rock Ferry one of the most desirable addresses in the North West. In the later part of the 19th century, Rock Ferry expanded due to the need to house the increasing population of workers, especially at Birkenhead's Cammell Laird shipyard. By 1901, the population stood at 2,971. In 1910, the Olympian Gardens were opened adjacent to the Royal Rock Hotel. These pleasure gardens were considered a great attraction and customers travelled from the whole of Wirral and, using the nearby ferry terminal, from Liverpool.