Woodhead Hall was originally commissioned by a Mr Leigh and completed in 1720. It was acquired by William Allen, a merchant, in the 1840s and completely rebuilt by
William Shepherd Allen to the designs of William Sugden in 1873. and, as a
Y-station, started monitoring important enemy signals information. The main task was to intercept messages from German
bombers and ground stations. The hall continued as a monitoring station during the
Cold War, with operations transferring to become part of
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in January 1964 when all ministries' civilian interception sites came under its control.
GCHQ Cheadle continued to monitor
Soviet communications. The station closed in 1995 and the property was sold into private ownership in 1997. ==References==