Woodhead Hall

Woodhead Hall is a country house dating from 1873, built for William Allen, a Manchester merchant, by William Sugden of Leek. Later 20th-century extensions have been added. The house has been used as a Government Communications Establishment and CSOS Cheadle. Constructed of Flemish bond red brick with stone dressings, it features a slate hipped roof with lead roll hips and ridge, a moulded stone cornice, and brick axial stacks with stone strings and caps.

The plan is of a large double-depth house with a central stairhall. The symmetrical south front has two bays of windows, a central two-bay section that projects forward with a pediment bearing an oval plaque inscribed “WSA:1873:EPA,” and the arrangement repeated on the first floor. The ground floor windows are 2-light sashes in slightly advanced, pilastered bays with colonnettes, moulded extrados, and balustrades above. Steps lead to a decorated central doorway with side lights, columns, and shaped stone brackets supporting a balustraded balcony. First-floor sashes have moulded stone architraves with cills on small brackets, and all windows are without glazing bars. Stone weathering defines the plinth and four stringcourses which run around the house. The rear north elevation presents a wide, pedimented centre bay with a 3-light window on the ground floor, canted above. This is flanked by narrow, 2-storey square bays. The west side has three canted, 2-storey bays. 20th-century cast-iron drainpipes are facsimiles of the originals, and 20th-century single-storey extensions are visible on the west and north sides.

The interior is largely intact and richly decorated. The entrance vestibule has an Ionic arcaded screen leading to a large, rectangular central stairhall containing a fine timber staircase with moulded balusters, a string, a panelled soffit, and newels with ball finials. The balustrade continues onto the landing, which has an arcade at the east end with Jacobean-style columns. There is also a moulded cornice, panelled coving, and a large, rectangular lantern. Principal rooms feature moulded plaster ceilings and pilastered window architraves with shutters, although most of the original chimneys have been removed. A back staircase is located on the east side of the house. Tradition holds the house stands on the site of an earlier building constructed around 1720, and the cellar of that earlier house survives beneath the present building.