Westwood High School, Leek
Westwood Park Drive,
Leek
,
Westwood was the home of Ralph Lees in 1666, when he was assessed for tax on seven hearths. By the early 18th century the farm was the property of William Jolliffe of Caverswall Castle. On his death in 1709 it passed to his daughter Lucy (d. 1742), wife of William Vane, in 1720 created Viscount Vane (d. 1734). In 1728 the farm, occupied by Caleb Morrice, covered 403 acres, but the house was in a bad state of repair; there was also a 14-acre farm. In 1759 William, Viscount Vane, son of William and Lucy, sold the reversion of what were described then and in 1735 as the manor or lordship of Westwood and the farm or grange called Westwood to Mary, countess of Stamford. By the time of Lord Vane's death in 1789 she had been succeeded by her second son Booth Grey, who was succeeded by his son Booth in 1802.
The younger Booth sold the estate in 1813 to John Davenport, a potter and glassmaker of Longport in Burslem and a native of Leek. He died at Westwood in 1848 with his son John as his heir. Both of them greatly enlarged the estate by buying neighbouring farms. The younger John, who was appointed sheriff in 1854, died in 1862. His son George sold Westwood Hall with much of the estate to John Robinson in 1868. Robinson was sheriff in 1882, the last to be accompanied by javelin men; the javelins were later kept at Westwood Hall. He died in 1902, leaving the house to his wife Helen with reversion to his three sons. Helen Robinson continued to live at Westwood Hall until her death in 1908, and by 1912 it was the home of H. J. Johnson. In 1920 he sold it to Staffordshire county council, which turned it into a school.
In 1804 the farmhouse called Westwood was offered for sale with 212 acres. as potentially 'a pleasant and convenient country residence'. In 1818 John Davenport began improvements, and by 1834 the house, then known as Westwood Hall, was 'a neat mansion with extensive plantations and pleasure grounds'. He added a new south entrance front and a wing to the northeast, employing James Elmes as his architect. The enlarged house, of two storeys with attics, was in the Elizabethan style with curved gables and mullioned and transomed windows. In 1851 John Davenport the younger made further extensions, designed by Weightman, Hadfield & Goldie of Sheffield and including a great hall and tower at the west end of the south front and extensive buildings around a courtyard on the north-west. The extensions, which were in stone on the principal elevations and dark red brick elsewhere, were in a plain Elizabethan style, and the surviving elevations by Elmes were altered to conform to it.
The improvements to the grounds made by John Davenport the elder included a terraced lawn to the east of the house with an ornamental retaining wall, entrance gates to the south-east, and a Gothic outbuilding with tower and spire to the south-west. Further south-west are early 19th-century stables, which were used as farm buildings after coach houses and stables were built west of the house in the mid 19th century. By 1864 much of the plateau on which the house stands and the adjacent slopes had been landscaped with a mixture of small woods and fields. A lodge was built on the eastern drive in 1852, and there was another at the entrance to the southern drive on the Newcastle road near Wall bridge by 1861. Both survive as houses.
The original Westwood Hall building dates from the 1600s. Originally it was a fairly simple farm-house, but when John Davenport, a potter and glassmaker bought the property in 1813 he began a series of major improvements which extended the house and transformed it into a mock Elizabethan manor. His son, John Davenport the younger carried on his father's work, enlarging his home with a great hall, tower and suite of buildings around a newly built courtyard. He also carried out major work on the estate grounds, introducing landscaped gardens, a Gothic style outbuilding with tower and spire, a coach-house and stables and two lodges which today remain as houses.After John died in 1868 his son George sold most of the estate to John Robinson. Following the death of Mr Robinson's widow in 1908 the Hall was bought by Mr H. J. Johnson, who lived there until 1920 when he sold the building and grounds to Staffordshire County Council. The Hall was opened as Westwood Hall County High School for Girls in 1921. In 1965 the school was merged with St Edward's Secondary School in Westwood Park Avenue, Leek to form Westwood County High School, a mixed comprehensive on shared sites. In 1981, Westwood Hall became the school's Old Hall and the St. Edward Street Building, New Hall. A performing arts studio was opened in 1984 in what had been Westwood Hall's banqueting room.
