Staircase House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Staircase House |
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The main entrance to Staircase House from the market place
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | Medieval |
| Town or city | Stockport, Cheshire, now in Greater Manchester |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 53°24′44″N 2°09′15″W / 53.4123°N 2.154221°W |
| Completed | c1460 |
| Designations | |
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Listed Building – Grade II*
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| Official name: Staircase House | |
| Designated: | 27 April 1992 |
| Reference #: | 1356855 |
Staircase House (also known as Stockport Museum) is a very old and special building in Stockport, England. It was built around 1460, which means it's over 560 years old! This house is famous for its unique Jacobean staircase, which is called a "cage newel" staircase. It's so important that it's officially listed as a Grade II* listed building. This means it's a historic place that needs to be protected.
You can visit Staircase House today and learn all about its past. An audio guide helps tell the story of the house as you explore.
Contents
History of Staircase House
Early Days: 1400s to 1800s
Staircase House was built using a very old method called "cruck timber" construction. This means large curved wooden beams were used to form the main frame of the building. Scientists used a method called dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) to find out exactly how old the wood is. They discovered the earliest parts of the house date back to 1459-1460!
We don't know much about the very first people who lived here. But it's thought that a man named William Dodge, who was the Mayor of Stockport in 1483, might have lived in the house.
The first family we know for sure lived there were the Shallcross family. They owned the house from 1605 to 1730. They were a wealthy family from nearby Derbyshire. In 1618, the Shallcross family added the amazing Jacobean cage newel staircase that the house is now named after. This staircase has beautiful carvings all over its wood.
A "cage newel" staircase is special because its main posts go all the way up through the different floors. These posts and the railings create a kind of open, cage-like space in the middle of the stairs. At some point, the posts in Staircase House were cut shorter. This might have been done to make it easier to move large furniture around, or perhaps because people's tastes in design changed over time.
Changes in the 1900s
In its later years as a private building, Staircase House was used for different things. For a while, part of it was a place called the Staircase Café, which closed in 1989. After that, it was used to store things for a fruit and vegetable stall that was in the market nearby.
Sadly, the house was badly damaged by two deliberate fires in the 1990s, with a major one happening in 1995. The building was almost falling apart. However, a local group called the Stockport Heritage Trust worked very hard to save it. They started campaigning in 1987.
The Trust believed the house was a unique piece of history that needed to be preserved. They convinced the local council not to knock it down. The Trust even paid for the tree-ring dating that confirmed the house was built in 1460. They also had detailed drawings made of the building. Thanks to their efforts, Staircase House was officially recognized as an even more important historic building in 1992, changing from a Grade II to a Grade II* listed building.
After the fires, the Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council bought the house. They carefully restored it using traditional materials and tools, making it look as it did in the past.
Staircase House as a Museum
Today, Staircase House is open to everyone as part of Stockport Museum. It gives visitors a special look into what life was like in Stockport during medieval times and the Renaissance period. You can learn about how the town started, how it became a borough (a town with special rights), and a market town. You can also see how the house changed over time, right up until the 1940s when someone last lived there.
The Stockport Museum has many interesting things to see. Its collection includes items from the very distant past, like the Palaeolithic period, and from the Iron Age hilltop settlement at Mellor. It also covers medieval times, the local textile industry during the Victorian era, the impact of World War I, the famous Strawberry Studios music recording studio, and the history of sport in Stockport.
See also
- Hat Works, a museum in Stockport all about hats.
- Stockport Air Raid Shelters, underground tunnels used during World War II, also part of Stockport's museum service.
