Cheadle Hulme School

The Cheadle Hulme School is a school building originally constructed in 1869 for the children of warehousemen and clerks. It was extended in 1899 and 1903, with further alterations and additions in the late 20th century. The school is built of red brick with ashlar sandstone dressings, moulded red brick decoration incorporating blue brick detailing, and a Welsh slate roof with tall brick ridge chimney stacks featuring decorated corbelled caps. It is designed in a Free Gothic style, arranged in a linear plan with a central raised entrance. The symmetry of the front is maintained by advanced gabled bays, achieved through later additions.

The building has two storeys and attics above a basement, with a 21-bay front arranged as 1:4:1:4:1:4:1:4:1. A five-stage tower with a tall, slender slated spire is offset to the right of the wide central entrance bay. A basement-level entrance is accessed by a dog-legged double flight of stone steps, flanked by pierced ashlar side walls, chamfered copings, and low terminal piers with tiered decorative caps. The tall arched entrance has two orders of attached columns with foliage capitals and a complex arch head featuring ball flower, nail head, and roll mouldings. An oriel window sits above the entrance, followed by a single attic light in the gable apex. Advanced gables feature stepped buttresses at the corners, and incorporate triple flat-headed basement windows, triple arch-headed ground-floor windows, and coupled arch-headed first-floor windows. Slender braced timber framing is advanced beyond the facing brickwork to the gable apexes. Set-back four-bay sections have coupled windows to each bay, with arch-headed ground-floor windows. Low buttresses delineate bay divisions on the outer four-bay sections. Rear elevations, while plainer, still display prominent advanced gables.

Inside, the entrance hall features a substantially-glazed lobby screen with double-glazed doors and a richly-patterned encaustic tiled floor. A triple-pointed arched access leads into the main spine corridor, supported by columns with foliage capitals. A trophy cupboard with a tall framed mirror back is located to the right of the hall, and a hearth with a surround is on the left. Half-glazed doors provide access to the dining hall, which contains early 20th-century stained glass panels depicting scenes of education and childhood. Staircases have ramped handrails, moulded newel posts, and stick balusters.

The school represents a well-preserved and richly detailed example of educational provision prior to the 1870 Elementary Education Act and reflects the influence of the Ecclesiologists in its Gothic detailing.