Footage released showing extensive damage to historic Hopwood Hall estate after break in

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Footage showing extensive damage to the historic Hopwood Hall estate has been released for the first time after a break in.

Hopwood DePree, an actor/producer from Los Angeles whose ancestral home is the Grade-II* listed Hall, has released video footage showcasing the vandalism caused during the break in over a year ago, including 29 smashed windows and damage to ornate wood carvings that are centuries old, some of the earliest English Gothic in the country.

Hopwood has an exclusive legal agreement with the council to enable him to have up to five years to rescue the 12^th century manor before he assumes full possession of his ancestral home, which has lay vacant for 30 years and is now on Historic England’s 'At Risk' register.

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/118654/hopwood-hall-estate-regeneration-gains-momentum

In the footage, curator Bob Wall is seen showing Hopwood how to rescue fragments from the damage by sieving through the remains. Over the years, Bob has religiously saved every single piece of plaster that has crumbled from the walls, in the hope that they can be restored, or at least inspire a replica.

The old hall dates back to feudal days, and still retains many structural and architectural features from the 14th century right until present day. The original hall was of early timber construction, rebuilt in Tudor brick by John Hopwood during 1687-90. Painstakingly intricate wood carvings, hundreds of years old, can be found covering the walls inside the hall.

Some famous names who visited Hopwood Hall include Guy Fawkes, who visited Edmund Hopwood, a witch hunter, when he was in Manchester planning the Gunpowder Plot, and Lord Bryon, who stayed at the Hall in 1811. An ornate fireplace is nicknamed the ‘Byron Fireplace’, part of which is thought to have been gifted by the noble and installed by renowned Middleton architect, Edgar Wood.

Following the death of Robert’s widow, Mary, Edward Gregge took over the hall in 1773, assuming the name Hopwood by an act of Parliament.

In 1942, Colonel Edward Hopwood, ‘the finest shot in Europe’ died at the age of 97 after allowing the hall to fall into disrepair. Both his sons were killed in the First World War; in memoriam, he planted the Verdun oak tree at St Leonard's Church in Middleton, which still stands today. His daughters married and moved away.

Hopwood Hall was then taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation before the manor house was acquired in 1947 by the De La Salle brothers for their teacher training college.

During the 1960s, new living, teaching and administrative quarters were built for 600 students, and the Hall became a centre for students. 

Hopwood Hall College, which sits nearby on part of the original grounds of the stately home from which it takes its name, opened in 1990, offering A-levels and vocational courses.