Was landmark beyond hope?

And furious campaigners fighting to save Baswich House from the bulldozers say the pictures prove the building's state of disrepair has been exaggerated.

Baswich House was built on the site of Staffordshire Police's current HQ on Cannock Road shortly after 1850 for former Stafford MP Thomas Salt.

However, Staffordshire Police Authority claims the building is of little historical interest and has been unsafe since 2001.

Claiming it would cost £1 million to repair, the authority is demolishing the building to make way for housing. Work has already started on clearing the building.

But campaigners say photographs uploaded onto website www.28dayslater.co.uk cast a new light on the claims.

They say the pictures, taken within the last few days by a mystery cameraman, show the building is in much better condition than the police authority has claimed, even though Baswich House was used for siege-style training exercises involving armed police officers.

Local resident Beryl Holt, the chairman of Berkswich History Society, said: "A lot of damage has been done over the last two days after the demolition work started but the pictures show the building is basically sound. Yet when we had a meeting on the issue with the police authority chairman, Mike Poulter, we were told quite clearly that it was not even safe to go in. There's a lot of people asking questions now about why it's being demolished."

Meanwhile, Marcus Binney, the president of national conservation charity Save Britain's Heritage, branded the demolition "a disgraceful example of the needless destruction of public property by a public authority".

He said: "Baswich House was built to a high specification with good quality materials and over the years has been maintained at public expense.

"As photographs viewable on the web make clear, the interior was handsomely fitted out with wood panelling, plasterwork and a rich carved Jacobean-style fireplace.

"Now the interior has been stripped out we shall never know what other notable features the house contained.

"Solidly-built Victorian buildings such as Baswich House have a long life ahead of them if they are properly looked after and maintained."

He added: "Save is concerned that the demolition of Baswich House marks the beginning of a tidal wave of destruction of public property by public bodies desperate to avoid paying rates on empty buildings."

Save Britain's Heritage recently obtained an injunction preventing Bolton Council in Lancashire from demolishing a Victorian building pending Judicial Review proceedings. The council conceded and demolition was halted. Police authority chairman Mike Poulter was unavailable for comment today as he is collecting his MBE for services to the community at Buckingham Palace.

Staffordshire Police spokeswoman Carol Evans said she could only reiterate previous statements issued by the authority, which said it had to spend its money on policing rather than preserving Baswich House. Councillor Poulter had also said that the Health and Safety Executive had judged the building to be unsafe.