- Staircase House
Infobox Historic building
caption=The main entrance to Staircase House from the market place
name=Staircase House
location_town=Stockport ,Greater Manchester
location_country=England
map_type=Greater Manchester
latitude=53.4123
longitude=-2.154221
architect=
client=
engineer=
construction_start_date=
completion_date=c1460
date_demolished=
cost=
structural_system=
style=Medieval
size=Staircase House is a Grade II* listed medieval building dating from around 1460 situated in
Stockport ,Greater Manchester ,England .History
Staircase House, (gbmapping|SJ897906), is a
cruck timber building and the timbers were dating, usingdendrochronology , to 1459-1460.cite book |author=Mike Nevell |date=1997 |title=The Archaeology of Trafford |publisher=Trafford Metropolitan Borough with University of Manchester Archaeological Unit |pages=71, 75 |isbn=1-870695-25-9] Very little is known of the house’s early history, though it is thought that it was originally the home of the Mayor of Stockport, William Dodge, in 1483.The first definite residents were the Shallcross family who owned the house from 1605–1730. Part of the landed gentry, it was they who installed the cage
newel staircase in 1618, which gives the house its name. The Jacobean staircase is one of only three surviving examples in Britain and has been carefully restored following an almost devastating fire in 1995, the second of two arson attacks on the semi derelict building.The House was restored after being damaged in the second fire. It was used partly as a warehouse for Gardner's Green Grocers in the 1990s and as the Staircase Cafe until 1989.It was compulsarily purchased by Stockport Council following a long and gruelling campaign to save it by local conservation group,
Stockport Heritage Trust, which began in 1987. The Trust, composed of local volunteers, argued that it was a unique survival and should be preserved and successfully opposed Stockport Council's plan to demolish the building as a dangerous structure. Stockport Heritage volunteers financed tree ring dating which established its construction date as 1460, carried out the first measured architectural survey and were successful in upgrading listed status from grade 2 to 2*. Now open to the public it offers a unique glimpse into the lives of medieval Stockport, the roots of the town, (including what made it aborough ) and subsequent stages of development until the 1940s, when it was last used as a residence.ee also
*
Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester References
External links
* [http://www.staircasehouse.org.uk/ www.staircasehouse.org.uk] , official site.
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