Hollywood filmmaker Hopwood DePree, 56, has launched a legal battle to regain ownership of his family's 600-year-old Hopwood Hall in Middleton, Greater Manchester, after Rochdale Borough Council locked him out of the property. The two-day trial, which began today at the Business and Property Courts, will decide whether planning permission granted in 2022 fulfilled a 2017 agreement requiring the council to transfer the freehold to Hopwood Hall Estate Ltd.
Dispute over 2017 agreement
Mr DePree says the council "simply changed its mind" after he secured planning permission for the Grade II-listed building. The row centres on an agreement first signed between Mr DePree and the council in July 2017, which he says gave him the chance to take ownership of the hall for just £1 once the necessary planning permission was secured.
The council's position is that the 2022 permission did not go far enough to amount to the detailed planning permission required for the proposed refurbishment. Mr DePree's legal team argues the agreement never required permission for every part of the restoration project in one go, saying it is "totally unrealistic to have expected funding for a project in the order of £30-40m to have been in place" before his side had control of the property.
Years of restoration efforts
Mr DePree, who grew up in America hearing stories about a mysterious "Hopwood Castle", discovered the long-lost family home in 2013 while researching his ancestry. He travelled to Britain and found the 60-room mansion derelict, with broken windows, collapsing ceilings and water running down the walls.
He relocated to the UK, established the Hopwood Foundation and began restoring the building alongside volunteers and heritage experts. Planning permission was granted in October 2022, allowing the site to be used for events, hospitality, tours, education, a café and shop. Mr DePree says he poured around £750,000 of his own money into the project and chronicled the restoration in his book "Downton Shabby".
Council's responsibility
The council said it has a responsibility to explore alternative options and safeguard public money already invested in the building. Mr DePree disputes previous council claims about the project, including suggestions he failed to present a viable business plan.
Mr DePree, who grew up in Los Angeles and is currently based in Michigan, says the battle has become personal after more than a decade spent trying to save his family's former home. He has said seeing the mansion finally restored would also be a tribute to his late grandfather, Herbert Hopwood Black, who passed down stories about the family's ancestral home.
Ahead of the hearing, Mr DePree said: "I'm looking forward to this coming out in public. I feel I have to stand up and fight for what's right." The hearing is listed for today and tomorrow (September 29 and 30).
