‘Who lived in a house this this?’
In the concluding part of his history of Woodhead Hall, historian PHILIP BROUGH looks at families who lived there...
THE land upon which Woodhead Hall is situated first seems to have been mentioned in 1275, in the Totmanslow Hundred Roll. It shows that the monks of Croxden Abbey acquired Cheadle Grange from John Salt Cheveral. The name sounding slightly French, it is possible that the family acquired it as a grant from William the Conqueror, for the Doomsday Book shows that “Chedle” belonged to the King but was held by Robert de Stafford and had formerly been held by the Lady Godiva (any volunteers for the next Cheadle Carnvial?).
In the years 1538 to 1546, Henry VIII had his dispute with the Pope over the question of the annulment (not divorce!) of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, resulting in the dissolution of the monasteries. The monastic lands that were confiscated were sold and Croxden, and all of its land, including Cheadle Grange, was acquired by Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, who, when he died, bequeathed it to his daughter, the Countess of Kent.
The Countess died in 1649, leaving Cheadle Grange and other land in the Cheadle area to a John Selden, a lawyer of the Inner Temple, who, in turn, in 1653, left it, on trust, to five fellow lawyers, Edward Heywood, John Vaughan, Matthew Hale, Rowland Jewkes and another. Within the year, the five lawyers, no doubt anxious to get some return, leased their shares to men described as being “their servants” for a period of three months, for the sum of five shillings.
In 1656, by an Act of Parliament, the lawyers were allowed to partition Cheadle Grange, which was then occupied by a Mr. John Vaughan. Immediately, all of the land in the Cheadle Grange Manor was tenanted. In 1693, the land was leased to two tenants, Thomas Crompton and William Leigh. After some thirty years, the whole of the land was held by
William Leigh alone. In 1720, he built the first Woodhead Hall.
He was still alive and living at the Hall in 1733, for, in a Right of Way dispute, it was stated that the land was occupied by him. It is probable that, at this time, William Leigh earned his income from agriculture; but by 1772, this had changed, for the Rector of Cheadle, answering a questionnaire sent to him by the Bishop, stated that Woodhead Hall was occupied by Mr. Leigh, and that he was a coal mine owner.
The mine was quite close to the Hall for a mound, that is almost certainly the site of the coal mine, is still visible to the north of the present house.
The only question is - when did William
Leigh Senior give way to William Leigh Junior? William Leigh Snr must have been born before 1672 as he was old enough to be granted the lease in 1693. It is therefore unlikely that he was still alive, aged at least one hundred, in 1772. It is probable he that died about 1750 and was succeeded by his son also named William
Allen.
The younger William Leigh seems to have been a man of the Industrial Revolution for he made his money and left. In 1791, the Hall was occupied by Thomas Thompson. He did not stay long in the Hall for, at the turn of the century, the Hall was occupied by Captain T. Honeybourne.
The Captain lived in the Hall for some 20 years and then, in 1820, Woodhead Hall was sold by auction. The Auction Details describe Woodhead Hall as being a
“Capital Mansion House with Coach House, Stables, outbuildings, yards, walled garden, Plantations and Shrubberies; also a farm, Plantations and covering an area of 121 acres 17 perch.” In addition, the owner was entitled to the sole occupancy of two pews in the Cheadle Church (Numbers 4 and 8 in the South Gallery).
In 1842, the Hall was owned by Thomas Thompson, although whether this was Thomas Thompson who had occupied the property in 1791, or one of his family, is not known. In that year, Thomas Thompson sold the Hall to William Allen, a merchant from Manchester. Seven years later, in 1849, he retired from his Manchester business and came to live in his Hall in Staffordshire. In 1856, he was appointed a Magistrate. Four years later however, in 1860, he was forced to retire from public life, due to his acute deafness. He died in 1871, and his son, also named William Allen, inherited the Hall.
His first priority was the fabric of the building, for it was suffering very badly from dry rot. It was beyond repair and the decision was made that that it should be demolished.
The present building was built in 1873, - not on the same site but on level ground “up the incline.”
The new Hall was designed by Larner Sugden The Sugdens, father and son, lived in Leek and were the leading architects of the day. They designed many of the fine buildings of Leek. The new Hall twenty-eight rooms, being fourteen for the family and fourteen for the staff.
William Allen relinquished his seat in Parliament in 1886 and thereafter shared his time between England and New Zealand. He died at Cheadle aged 83, in 1915.
On the death of his widow, Elizabeth Penelope Allen, in 1925, the Hall was leased to the Misses B. C. and M. H. Hunt, for use by them as a Preparatory School for Boys and Girls. The Preparatory School closed in 1936 when the lease expired and the Hall was standing empty. As recounted earlier, it was then leased to the Air Ministry.
Although they retained ownership for a few years to come, to all intents and purposes the Allen family pass out of the story of the Hall.
A few words must be said about the two sons of the Allen family. In 1939, Stephen Shepherd Allen was commissioned in the British Army. When the first New Zealand troops arrived, he was sent to Egypt. He was with them during the fighting in Greece and Crete and was Mentioned in Dispatches. In October 1941, he returned to the UK and was discharged. His son, an officer serving in a submarine, was lost at sea in April 1942. Stephen Allen returned to New Zealand in December 1942. His wife died in 1946 after a long illness. A long-time Free Mason, he was the 1948/49 Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand. He maintained his several interests, wrote several papers for the Kipling Journal and, in 1959, published a book entitled “Early Morrinsville.” He died on 4th November 1964 after suffering a heart attack whilst driving his car. Both he and his housekeeper, his passenger, were killed. He was survived by his daughter.
His brother, William Stephen Allen, held the rank of Group Captain in R.A.F. and became the Deputy Director of Telecommunications with the Air Ministry, as a Civil Servant.
Another brother, Thomas Allen had a tragic life. He was born in 1878 and returned from New Zealand in 1904. After a time as a fruit-grower near to Canterbury, he was diagnosed with a form of mental disability. This manifested itself when he was on holiday in France and, whilst dining in a restaurant in Paris, had an altercation with a waiter which ended in the waiter being shot. The matter was resolved by some means and Thomas was brought back to England and incarcerated in the Coton Hill Mental Asylum, near to Stafford. It is on record that at an Allen family funeral, shortly after the War ended, a man was present but was escorted by two uniformed men at all times. This was undoubtedly Thomas Shepherd Allen under medical supervision. He died in the asylum in 1947.
A link with the former days of Woodhead
Hall was discovered in 1968, when one of the additional buildings erected during the war was demolished, the foundations of the old
Hall were found.
In 1995, the decision was made to close the Y-station at Cheadle. The Hall and buildings were emptied of all equipment and put up for sale.
Alan Chesters, who owned a local company, was in need of storage and office space. The out-buildings at Woodhead Hall were perfect for his requirements; especially their location. When purchasing the land, he also purchased the Hall, partly because “it came with it.” In all, he bought the Hall and 21 acres. The rest of the estate, comprising some two hundred acres, was bought by local farmers, mostly those from whom the land had earlier been compulsorily purchased!
Having attended to his business needs, the next priority was the house. When Joan and Alan acquired the Hall it was entirely offices. Their intention was to restore it back to being a family home; and they succeeded. Any-one who has been to Woodhead Hall in recent times can bear witness to the love, care and attention they have given to the building. They lived there for many years but recently, they realised that the time had come to move on and in 2018, the Hall was sold.
Its destiny remains to be seen. Woodhead Hall is a noble building that has enhanced the locality for generations and, as we have seen, served the Country both during and after the war years.