Renovations begin on historic Hopwood Hall's family chapel

Renovations have begun on the Hopwood family chapel at the historic Hopwood Hall.

Actor and producer, Hopwood DePree, who is restoring his ancestral home, has started rebuilding the Hopwood family chapel by tearing out the ceiling, revealing some ancient original beams dating back to 1690.

A private church for the family, the chapel was built in the 1600s by John Hopwood, but priests moved in sometime in the 1900s and made a lot of changes to the building.

Hopwood said: “We’re going to tear all the ceiling down where it’s all falling out. A lot of this was put up the 60s and it’s got to go.”

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

Behind the ceiling, there were some historic beams which suggests the original roof was taken off to make the room two storeys.

Hopwood visited the famous St Leonard’s Church, which dates back to the 1100s, to better understand how his own family’s chapel could have looked.

 

 

The Hopwood family had their own pew in the Middleton church where they attended mass and communions. The Hopwood pew in St Leonard's once contained an altar and statue. An aumbrey survives behind a hinged door in the panelling opposite the door, indicating mass was celebrated here prior to the Reformation.

The pew was boxed in 1620 during the Jacobean period, and the traditional burial place for the Hopwoods was beneath their pew.

The visit provided Hopwood with an insight into how best to renovate Hopwood Hall chapel to its original state.

Inside the family chapel, plaster on the walls has cracked and chipped away.

Hopwood said: “You can see behind some of this plaster that’s cracking off, just amazing brickwork, these curved round bricks. You don’t see bricks like that anymore.”

Removing plaster from the walls that was put on in the 1960s or 1970s exposed some original bricks and rock plinth, thought to be over 300 years old.

It also uncovered some walls approximately 4ft thick.

He said: “You almost wonder if there was a secret stairway in here. Why would they make it so thick?

“I think we should get an x-ray machine or heat sensor or something, just to see if there’s any space inside of here.

“Maybe there are skeletons in here or a prison or down to a dungeon.”

Hopwood said the room is starting to feel like it should have after getting it back to its original size by removing the ceiling and uncovering the old beams.

He said: “You can feel Hopwood Hall coming back, it’s so exciting.”

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.

The old hall dates back to feudal days, and still retains many structural and architectural features from the 14th century, including some of the earliest English Gothic intricate wood carvings and elaborate ornate fireplaces.

Hopwood Hall was later 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, until Hopwood Hall College opened in 1990.

Hopwood has been chronicling the restoration of the building via video, which can be viewed at:

• www.youtube.com/c/HopwoodXIV