Woakes at the double as Sri Lanka slump against England in first Test
That actually represented something of a considerable recovery for Sri Lanka, who were 6-3, having lost three wickets for no runs in 10 balls soon after captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss.
It was a dream start for stand-in England skipper Ollie Pope, leading his country for the first time after Ben Stokes was ruled out with a torn hamstring.
Woakes, now established as England's senior bowler after the retirement of James Anderson, had interval figures of 2-17 in seven overs.
De Silva was 28 not out at lunch, the top score in the innings so far, after Kusal Mendis had briefly staunched the flow of wickets with an attractive 24.
Sri Lanka came into their first Test in England in eight years on the back of just a solitary warm-up game -- a defeat by the second-string England Lions -- and it was soon clear some of their batsmen could have done with more time in the middle.
Their collapse started in the sixth over when Dimuth Karunaratne top-edged a hook off fast bowler Gus Atkinson to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
Woakes then took two wickets in the next over, with Nishan Madushka, the other opening batsman, driving loosely at an outswinger and edging to Joe Root at first slip as he fell for four.
Five balls later, worse followed for Sri Lanka when Angelo Mathews was plumb lbw to Woakes playing no shot to a delivery that nipped back off the pitch.
The experienced Mathews reviewed but replays upheld Australian umpire Paul Reiffel's decision and Sri Lanka were 6-3, with Woakes having then taken 2-2 in four overs under increasingly gloomy skies.
Matthew Potts, recalled in place of Stokes, then saw his first over cost 11 runs as Sri Lanka briefly broke the shackles with Mendis slashing successive fours.
Mendis later drilled the paceman through the covers for another boundary before he was undone by express fast bowler Mark Wood, the batsman gloving a superb 93 mph (150 km/h) delivery that reared up from a good length to second slip.
Sri Lanka's plight was compounded shortly before lunch when Dinesh Chandimal, who had fought hard for his 17, was lbw to a ball from off-spinner Shoaib Bashir that hardly bounced.
Before play started there was a minute's applause in honour of Graham Thorpe, the former England international and assistant coach, with both teams, as well as the match officials, wearing black armbands in his honour.
Widely regarded as the outstanding England batsman of his generation, Thorpe died aged 55 earlier this month after taking his own life when hit by a train.