Dying / Dead Climbing Rose Bush

Several ideas come to mind. Firstly, as the rose is close to the house, it could be that the plant has lacked water during a particularly dry period (competition for moisture with the foundations). It could just have had its day so to speak. Rose sickness, could have finished it off. Do you want to risk planting a new rose in the same spot? If so, then you might consider using ''Rootgrow for Roses'' that will give protection for replanting roses in the same place. Before removing, I would scratch the newer stems with your finger nail. If it is green, then cut out the old stems to allow these newer ones to take their place. Any new shoots should start to break about now.

Its a bit early for roses (where you are) to have started leafing out yet... give it a couple of weeks to see if and where new growth starts to appear, and if it does,then prune it correctly, removing any dead wood at the base (preferably with sharp loppers for thicker stems) and shortening longer branches. In the meantime, its probably wise to try to remove the ivy that is clearly advancing up the wall - do it carefully, you will likely find its firmly attached to the wall itself,but cut back and remove what you can of it, or it'll take over the house wall completely. The ivy will certainly be competing with the rose for nutrients and water anyway.

Thank you so much for your replies. It certainly helps, being such a novice and taking over this beautiful garden is a challenge but I want to do the best I can.
I'll get out tomorrow and clear as much of the Ivy as I can and then keep an eye out for new leaves.
I tried to scrape a bit off from the stems but it just looks brown under there, no green :-( :-(

If you are not in a hurry to remove the ivy you can kill it by cutting it off at the base and leaving it where it is. when it is quite dead it lefts off very easily. You may need to kill off the root separately if it tries to regrow.

Welcome to GoY Teddy :o)

I'd certainly wait a little bit longer. try scratching bark off on some of the younger growth and see if that is green. very old stems don't always show green.

Thank you everybody for your tips. I've been out and cut the Ivy right down, there still doesn't seem to be any signs of life. There is another climbing rose on the right which does have new leaves growing. I'll upload an updated picture now so you can see more clearly.
At the moment I'm thinking of leaving it another week or so and then digging it up ... which will be terribly sad :-(