Greater Manchester Police Training School Sedgley House

This is a former house, now a police training school, dating back to the 1850s. It was significantly extended and refurbished between 1875 and 1900 for the Petrocokino family. The building is constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with brick dressings, and has Welsh slate roofs.

The original 1850s layout features a central entrance hall flanked by dining and drawing rooms to the south, and an open-well stair hall to the rear. An office and garden room run along the east side, with a service wing and stair tower built into the northwest corner. Later extensions, which lack special architectural interest, are linked via service and private corridors. A billiard room is located at the rear. The house is two storeys high with an attic.

The front facade has three bays, with steeply gabled wings that project to form shallow wings featuring canted bay windows. A porch with a wide arch, buttresses with set-offs, and pierced parapets is present. The bay windows have stone mullions and transoms, with a 1:3:1 light arrangement. The wings have bargeboarding, and the central gable has stone coping. The right return has three bays under gables, displaying asymmetrical but regular fenestration of two, three, and four-light windows (with mullions and transoms), with one window recessed behind a wide arch. The left return features a gabled window bay and a three-stage stair tower connected to the service areas. The rear elevation has a 2:1:2 bay arrangement, mirrored in its detailing to the other elevations, with the centre bay projecting and featuring corbelled angles to the attic. Stacks have been truncated.

The interior is remarkably well-preserved and elaborate. The entrance hall features a glazed and panelled screen, a Minton tiled floor, and a wooden fire surround with lamps and a clock bearing the monogram of Themistocles Petrocokino. The southwest dining room retains panelled doors, walls, a buffet recess, a panelled ceiling, and a Gothic fireplace from the 1850s, along with an elaborate brass chandelier. The colour scheme and curtain pelmets are from the later 19th century. The southeast dining room, with the exception of a panelled door, is entirely from the late 19th century, designed in an Adamesque style, including an elaborate overmantel and mirror surrounds crafted by James Lamb, a notable Manchester cabinet maker. The ceiling is stencilled, with two oil paintings within lunettes, and has a coved cornice. The study includes an 1850s fireplace with Art Nouveau hearth tiles and light fittings. The garden room has a marble Gothic fireplace from the 1850s and a sumptuously decorated 1883 ceiling depicting a cornucopia, ribbons, garlands, and birds. The staircase has a cast-iron balustrade featuring complex pierced tracery panels with the Petrocokino monogram, and includes two statue niches on the lower landing. The billiard room contains late 19th-century fittings. Minor alterations around 1900 have not diminished the overall quality of the interior.