estate – which once numbered several thousand
acres – from sometime shortly after the
Norman Conquest.
In that way that many history-hungry
Americans research their lineage, however
distant, far more keenly than most Brits
ever bother to, DePree believes that his
ancestors – via his mother’s line – left
England for America in the 1700s, founding
the town of Hopwood in Pennsylvania.
The family surname died out with hismiddle-aged American actor,
disenchanted with Los Angeles
life, falls for an ageing Brit, sells
up in sunny California and relocates
wholesale to our small, soggy
island where – while navigating
vitamin D deficiency and confusing
colloquialisms – he charms both
the locals, who band together
to support his highly ambitious
(read: potentially harebrained) scheme, and
the nation’s aristos, who welcome him into
their rarefied world of ancestral piles and
shooting parties.
Except, in this Hollywood rom-com, the
ageing Brit is a decrepit 15th-century manor
house on the verge of condemnation outside
Rochdale, and the American actor is, by
his own admission, wholly inept at even
rudimentary DIY, let alone large-scale
historic reconstruction.
Hopwood DePree became de facto lord
of the manor at Hopwood Hall in Middleton,
Lancashire, in 2017. Such a wreck was the
600-year-old structure that no money even
changed hands. He had only to prove to
Rochdale council, its erstwhile caretaker,
that he could show a workable plan to salvage,
restore and sustain the crumbling edifice.
He is now five years into a vast, painstaking
restoration of the 25-bedroom stately home,
to which he hopes one day to welcome guests
again, just as it once played host to overnighters
including Lord Byron – who sent an enormous
stone fireplace, still fully intact today, as a
thank you – Frédéric Chopin and Guy Fawkes.
The restoration will cost an estimated
£10 million, he tells me (a wildly conservative
estimate I’d say, but I don’t want to seem
discouraging), of which just over £1 million has
been raised and spent so far – from grants,
applications, fundraising and DePree’s own
pocket – and only one tenth of the building
is yet accessible without a hard hat. But, later
this month, DePree is to hold a public open
day, throwing wide the ancient 15ft doors to
the three accessible rooms so far, plus one
courtyard. He also hopes to live on site as
soon as he is able – there’s running waterThe Times Magazine 49A
now, and wi-fi, though no heating and, even
on a warm, early summer’s day, it’s a good 10C
colder indoors than out. In the meantime, he’s
written a (very wry, very funny) book about
his decade-long restoration romance so far:
Downton Shabby: One American’s Ultimate DIY
Adventure Restoring his Family’s English Castle.
As the book’s title suggests, it’s not a
completely random romance. DePree is,
he believes, a descendent of the Hopwoods
who owned the hall and the surrounding‘You can go to a place you’ve never been and feel like
it’s home, feel you belong there... It’s hard to explain’
Lady Hopwood on the front lawn in the 1880sTop: Hopwood Hall in the 1880s. Above: the reception hall in, left, the 1880s and 2013. Below: aerial views from 1965 and 2017TOUCHSTONES ROCHDALE, COURTESY OF HOPWOOD HALL, PHIL LONGLEY