The campaigners working 24/7 to save the Crooked House

The devastating fire and subsequent demolition of the Crooked House pub has made headlines around the world, but no one is working harder than the campaigners finding some way to salvage it.

As a rallying Facebook group surpassed 21,000 members, the BBC spoke to some of the people working tirelessly behind the scenes.

Anger was brewing locally about the future of the Crooked House well before the now notorious arson attack.

A Facebook group was set up when Marston's sold the legendary pub to new owners and locals were concerned for its future.

It is no surprise then, that after the fire that engulfed it on 5 August and the bulldozers that knocked it down less than 48 hours later, people became incensed.

The campaign to save it became a crusade to rebuild it. The Facebook group grew rapidly and less than three weeks on, it has more than 21,000 members.

"It's a much bigger job than when we started," the group's current administrator Paul Turner said.

He took over running the group after he said the man who started the initial group "found it was a lot for him". Mr Turner admitted it was "very difficult" running the page due to the volume of posts from passionate members who live all over the world.

"It's just evolved to this monster which has taken over," said Ian Sandall, who joined after he saw videos of the pub's demolition.

Like dozens of others, he joined a gathering a day later at the site of the rubble, near Dudley, and started talking to the group's founder.

"He asked me to come onboard which I did," Mr Sandall said.

The page includes posts about next steps - which direction the campaign should go, who should be involved, and who is going to do the next media appearance as journalists bombard the message board.

There are messages of support, plans for meet ups, and lots of memory-sharing.

Live feeds pop up when something is happening down at the site in Himley, such as the securing of it on Tuesday when the bricks started to be collected for safekeeping on the site.

There are also messages of defiance, such as "Black Country folk are unstoppable". It's something the moderators know for sure.

"People gee me up with messages throughout the day. If I put my phone down I could have 30 to 40 messages in an hour along with Facebook pings."

Mr Turner and the other 11 moderators on the group have full-time jobs, in his case helping people with alcohol problems.

They've had to work out how to balance their lives with the demands of the group.

"We realised we had to change so many things to make it manageable," he said.

These included drawing up rules on the page for those posting as well as regular group chats between the moderators.

Kel Cunningham lives in Gibraltar but has fond memories of the Crooked House from her childhood in Sedgley and Tipton. She offered her time as a moderator.

"There are hundreds of posts every day that we have to review which can be difficult when juggling work and family," she said.

She works as a project manager and has even found herself checking posts while on holiday.

"Sometimes people disagree with the removal of posts which we have to respond to diplomatically. We have group chats where we liaise with each other," she added.

Speculation has proved an issue for the team on the Facebook group as the fire is being treated as arson by police and council officials have said the demolition was unacceptable and possibly unlawful.

"We are trying to be a professional campaign and have to be careful what people are posting," Mr Sandall said.

"Some of us have had messages of severe abuse after removing posts and they don't realise we are human."

Mr Sandall said a typical day for him as a moderator starts with a phone full of messages and alerts which continue throughout the day which he responds to.

"When I get home, I've got my partner sitting next to me and my phone is constantly in my hand, taking video calls, replying to messages and Facebook is constant," he said.

"I have to praise my partner as it has detracted from my personal life and she is picking up the pieces."

The pub, known for its sloping walls and floor, was bought from Marston's by ATE Farms Limited in July.

The group remain committed to the idea of rebuilding the Crooked House although Mr Turner said they have had to stop people from raising money for them.

"We don't want anyone raising funds for no reason as we have nothing to spend the money on," he said.

Members of the group met with Greg Mulholland, from the Campaign for Pubs, on Wednesday to hear advice from him to help their campaign.

At the same time, work continued to remove hazardous waste and to make the site safe but South Staffordshire Council has said the foundations and bricks from the pub will remain on site.

For Mr Sandall, expectations with the group were for some normality when interest died down "but events keep happening".

"We've still got this reactive, manic lifestyle at the minute and the only thing we can do is see how it goes, we are giving it all for the cause."

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