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A former US filmmaker is engaged in a High Court dispute with an English council over the ownership of an ancestral manor he dedicated seven years to saving from disrepair.
Hopwood DePree has spearheaded restoration efforts at the historic Hopwood Hall in Middleton, Greater Manchester, since 2017. He asserts that he adhered to an agreement with Rochdale Borough Council, which granted him the option to purchase the property.
However, the council contends that he did not meet the conditions stipulated in the agreement, leading to his exclusion from the premises in November 2024.
DePree, who documented his restoration endeavors in his 2022 book “Downton Shabby,” has initiated legal action to be recognized as the rightful owner of the estate.
DePree recounts childhood stories from his grandfather in Michigan about “Hopwood Castle,” only discovering the hall’s actual existence while researching his genealogy in 2013.
Dating back to the 1420s, the 60-room structure saw its direct heirs perish in World War One, with the last family members departing in the 1920s.
By DePree’s initial visit, the hall was derelict, and he recalls being informed in 2015 that it would be beyond salvage within five to ten years.
He relocated to the UK to lead the preservation and restoration initiative, formalizing an agreement with the council in 2017 that stipulated a £1 purchase price, contingent on securing planning permission for development.
DePree commenced work on the deteriorating building and obtained planning permission in 2022 to renovate it into an event and hospitality venue. He states that he has invested £750,000 of his personal funds into the project.
He alleges that relations deteriorated following increased involvement from the council’s Rochdale Development Agency in 2024. DePree’s legal filings accuse the agency of attempting to “poison everything my team and I had worked so hard to achieve.”
He asserts that the council ceased cooperation and acted without his knowledge, characterizing their conduct as “evasive, misleading, and at times shocking.”
A council spokesperson stated, “We don’t comment on ongoing legal discussions and don’t intend to elaborate on previous statements we have made on this subject.”
The council has previously indicated that any sale was contingent on DePree presenting “a commercially viable business model to secure the long term future of the hall.”
Last November, the council announced its decision not to renew the option agreement after consultants deemed his plans “unlikely to be able to secure future public or private funding.”
At that time, a council spokesman said DePree “had not been able to produce a viable proposal, which it said was a condition of the sale, despite having had seven years to do so.” The authority asserted it “had a responsibility to explore alternative options” in order to “protect the public monies invested to date.”
In November, council leader Neil Emmott stated: “Mr DePree was asked to meet a number of conditions when we entered into our agreement with him. We would be failing in our duty to protect our historic assets if we didn’t hold Mr DePree to the terms of this agreement.”
The council reported spending £557,000 between 2017 and 2024 on essential repairs, with nearly £1 million contributed by Historic England. The council indicated it was now allocating an additional £700,000 for roof repairs and a feasibility study.
According to DePree’s legal documents, the council has also argued that the planning permission was insufficient to meet the terms for a sale under the agreement. He is contesting this assertion.
He is also disputing whether he needed to provide a viable business model to comply with the conditions for a sale, and his court papers say he does have “a clear vision, a plan and the resources to rescue Hopwood Hall”.
DePree told BBC News he believes he has complied with his end of the agreement.
“When I took the project on, the hall was just a few years from completely falling down and becoming a ruin,” he said.
“We worked so hard and poured everything into it. I moved countries. I got British citizenship. I left behind a life and sold my home. I went through so much with the belief that the council was being open and honest with me, and I trusted them.”
He added: “Ultimately I had an agreement that I signed with them that I fulfilled. My lawyers feel that we fulfilled that, and the council went against that, and I felt that I had no other choice other than to file court proceedings against them.”
DePree and his family are involved in property development, and he sold his home in the Hollywood Hills to help fund the project.
In his former life, DePree was an actor, writer, producer and director whose early attempts to make it big in Hollywood were depicted in low-budget documentary Rhinoskin: The Making of a Movie Star.
He wrote, directed and appeared in the well-received independent rom-com The Last Big Attraction, and produced the 2010 drama Virginia starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.
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