?Like a "Northern Flicker" in UK?

Hi. This morning (16 Sept 2019) very briefly a very unusual bird landed in our garden at Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK. Sadly not for long enough to get a photo. At first I thought it was a woodpecker (I'm not greatly knowledeable about birds), but checking our "Birds of Britain and Europe" book, it did n't match any colouring wise. It had a white/cream back with black speckles or maybe black patches/bars. White/cream wing tops with black speckles I think. Black patches elsewhere. Red - possibly as a red head cap, but time was against my observation and memory. It landed to a horizontal mode (like most birds), not a vertical stance. (We've had a kestrel twice - which was more vertical.) Size bigger than a blackbird but less than a pigeon, and fairly sleak.

The closest I've seen so far in a web search is the USA "Northern Flicker".

Has anyone else seen similar in the SW UK recently? Any ideas what it may have been?

Many thanks. IanBJ