‘Downton Shabby’: A Commoner Takes on an English Castle

People who search genealogy internet websites usually uncover beginning and relationship records, newspaper clippings, faded photographs or perhaps a extensive-missing relative.

Hopwood DePree identified a 60-room English manor.

As a kid expanding up in Holland, Mich., in the 1970s, Mr. DePree was transfixed when his beloved maternal grandfather, Pap, a history buff, advised him about a massive slice of rolling land throughout the ocean in which his forebears experienced a grand house identified as Hopwood Castle.

A castle in Britain owned by his family? Named for his household? No way.

Quickly ahead three and a 50 % many years. Mr. DePree, by then an actor and producer in Los Angeles, was at his laptop or computer early just one night time in the spring of 2013, trawling an ancestry site.

The previous experienced grow to be a most loved destination for him following Pap’s demise in 2008 and, two a long time later on, the unexpected dying of his father, Thomas, from a large coronary heart assault. Mr. DePree was remaining unmoored, uncertain about the way forward. Tracing his roots was a ease and comfort.

That fateful evening, he observed a connection to a story about a Lord Hopwood of Hopwood Hall and an old black-and-white image of a very stately residence in Middleton, England, just outside Manchester. Ever more curious, Mr. DePree built some email inquiries and booked a flight to see firsthand the spouse and children seat.

A 50,000-square-foot, brick-and-stone manor built in a quadrangle around a timber-framed hall, Hopwood Corridor had witnessed greater hundreds of years. The roof leaked prodigiously, dry rot was ascendant, moisture seeped from the partitions, plaster was falling from the ceilings, windows were missing panes, floors were being missing boards, many sections of the residence had been vandalized. Trees were rising out of the chimneys.

And nonetheless … there have been doors dotted with rivets from the medieval period of time — some sections of the residence day to 1426 — and doorways with their first hand-forged hardware. The wood-paneled walls in one particular of the parlors had been decorated with intricate carvings from baseboard to ceiling. The fireplace in a place recognized as the reception hall was embellished with an iteration of the Hopwood relatives coat of arms the family’s heraldic animal, a stag and the Hopwood family members motto, “By Degrees.”

“When I walked in, I felt some thing in me alter nearly right away. I realized this put was exclusive,” Mr. DePree, 52, mentioned. “But I was informed for the duration of that initial go to that if practically nothing was completed, inside of five or 10 yrs, Hopwood Hall would crumble.”

He chronicles his endeavours to save the corridor in “Downton Shabby: A person American’s Final Diy Adventure Restoring His Family’s English Castle,” a memoir released late previous month.

Hopwoods lived in the property right until the early 1920s, in accordance to the book. But immediately after the two heirs were being killed for the duration of Entire world War I, their grieving aged mom and dad shut up the property and moved to London. A cotton business applied the hall during Earth War II, and in 1946 an get of monks moved in for a few decades. By the late 1980s, the property had turn into the duty of the local authority, which had neither the will nor the wherewithal to retain it. Then came Mr. DePree.

The “DIY” in the book’s title is, perhaps, extra than a little bit deceptive: Mr. DePree, who bears a passing resemblance to Owen Wilson, is not the person reglazing the windows, plastering the partitions, stabilizing the basis or replacing floorboards. Hopwood Hall’s longtime caretaker, Bob Wall, has joked that the acronym seriously stands for “Dim Inexperienced Yank.”

But credit where credit score is because of: The Yank has come a long way from the humiliating second when he stood in a parking good deal of a House Depot in Los Angeles, practically in tears because he could not figure out how to work the adhere-on tiles he experienced acquired for his bathroom ground.

“I’ve learned how to combine mortar and make plaster molds. I’ve acquired to do pointing on bricks,” explained Mr. DePree, who sold his residence in Los Angeles 5 many years ago and moved full time to Middleton to immerse himself in the preservation initiatives. “But I wouldn’t say at all that I’m a experienced craftsman by any extend of the creativeness.”

Continue to, he has carried out a good deal of heavy lifting considering the fact that 2017, when he signed a contract with the Rochdale Borough Council, the community authority, to assume duty for Hopwood Hall. (The Council experienced 1st verified his familial bona fides.) The deal gave Mr. DePree 5 many years to occur up with a practicable and thoroughly in depth prepare to help save his ancestral house and develop a sustainable design to preserve the lights on.

“His quest definitely is the things of desires,” Neil Emmott, the leader of the Council, wrote in an e-mail. “When we initially heard about Hopwood’s ambitions, we weren’t absolutely sure if they constituted a viable proposal. Nonetheless, bit by bit but certainly, we have viewed how his tricky perform and resolve coupled with the assistance of several community volunteers is turning the fantasy into fact.”

“Hopwood was just feeling his way when I to start with met him, but he’s come to be additional assured,” mentioned Geoff Wellens, a regional historian. “I definitely think that if any person can get the career done, it’s him. It’s his family’s outdated property. He has that spouse and children tie.”

Little bit by bit, Mr. DePree has grow to be the public encounter of the effort and hard work, its cheerleader in main and committed fund-raiser. The latest grants from Historic England, a government agency, and the Rochdale Borough Council complete extra than $1 million.

Many thanks to an acquaintance, Mr. DePree was also invited to be part of Historic Houses, an affiliation comprising the house owners of lots of of Britain’s largest private residences. At the initially accumulating of the group that he attended, he satisfied the quite welcoming Lord and Woman Carnarvon — “Geordie and Fiona” — the homeowners of Highclere Castle, in which significantly of “Downton Abbey” was shot. He also satisfied Julian Fellowes, the creator of “Downton Abbey” and the operator of Stafford House, a grand pile on the south coastline of England.

“Start with the roof,” Mr. Fellowes recommended the newbie about Hopwood Hall. “Make guaranteed it is dry and go from there.”

Soon following his transfer to Britain, Mr. DePree started a YouTube channel, putting up films for friends and supporters to chart the development of the restoration. He also wrote a a person-male demonstrate about his travails and triumphs, and toured it at comedy festivals all around the state.

The selling price tag for the household improvement is $13 million, with once-a-year operating costs estimated at $800,000, Mr. DePree stated. Proceeds from his exhibit have been contributed to the lead to a chunk of the royalties from his ebook will go towards it, way too.

“Many country houses in the U.K. have experienced to come across ways to reinvent by themselves to maintain up with the monumental charges of functioning, staffing and routine maintenance, and Hopwood Corridor is on a comparable route,” Mr. DePree mentioned. He hopes to change the manor into an arts hub for the community community and a vacationer spot. A marriage destination, as well. Hopwood Hall will have all around 25 bedrooms to accommodate the festivities.

There are now at times as quite a few as 30 compensated personnel and eager volunteers at the hall on a specified working day. “We’re relocating forward rather quickly,” stated Mr. DePree through a latest Zoom connect with as he walked by way of the carriage entrance, at the moment a holding space for the substantial squares of slate that will soon pave the roof. “This calendar year has been interesting simply because I’ve been walking into rooms that it had not been safe and sound to walk into prior to.”

But development isn’t automatically constant. “A couple weeks in the past, there was proof that it’s possible there had been bats in the hall, so we had to immediately halt what we have been undertaking and examine with gurus and do a bat survey, because bats are a safeguarded species,” he reported.

Flying mammals are amongst the many difficulties. Hopwood Hall is also a “Grade 2* listed” setting up, a designation by Historic England for constructions of certain architectural or historical desire. Therefore, partitions simply cannot be knocked down willy-nilly a recently discovered door can not be pried open devoid of authorization.

Slowly, Mr. DePree has grasped that he isn’t in Los Angeles anymore. “I’m understanding about heritage techniques and understanding that you simply cannot use modern materials,” he claimed.

In other words, drywall from House Depot is not an possibility. Instead, you have to locate some goat hair and, employing medieval procedures, mix it with lime mortar. And no off-the-rack windows — you have to use certain glass, Mr. DePree reported, “and load it into a leaded-glass window, which is a total skill unto itself.”

Beneath the phrases of his settlement with the Council, Mr. DePree can go into Hopwood Hall as shortly as it is safe to do so — potentially this 12 months. At some stage, he’ll officially turn into the owner of the residence. “We’re obtaining closer to the position that it can be entrusted to me,” he explained.

“Obviously, the relatives link was a providing level with the Council,” Mr. DePree continued. “I don’t imagine any of this would have occurred without having that link.”

His grandfather, he said, would be very pleased. “He beloved heritage and he beloved his Hopwood identity,” Mr. DePree reported. “Maybe a number of hundred years from now, persons will examine about this challenge and there will be just one or two strains about me.”

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