The light and airy space overlooking the gardens would make a lovely reading room or library. The problem, however, is that it has no floor, despite a National Heritage Lottery grant being awarded earlier this year for repair work to make the ground floor rooms accessible for visitors again. community.

DePree shakes his head wistfully. “I just want to save this building, not for myself, but for the community. “There is great passion from everyone to get Hopwood Hall back into public use.”

And that has always been the dream of DePree, a Michigan native. He first came to the town of Middleton in 2013, fueled by intrigue after hearing stories from relatives of a “castle in England” that his immediate family had left behind to go to America in the 18th century.

After a visit to an ancestry website, I was on the plane to England. DePree instantly fell in love with Hopwood Hall, despite its downtrodden state and nondescript location at the back of a sprawling community college. Local historians told DePree they thought it had five to ten years left before it fell into complete ruin. It remains on the register of Historic Buildings at Risk.

“It was a complete disaster,” DePree admits. “But I was still very moved by the history of the building. Its sheer beauty: hand-carved wooden figures and cherubs on the walls, a ceremonial marriage plaque carved in 1689. The caretaker took me to this moldy room where they said my 14-times great-grandfather would have been, and I was , like, ‘okay, I have to do something here.’

“My family in the United States felt the same and at that time it was about raising funds from afar. “I then got involved with Rochdale Council to try and spearhead a project to restore the building – it was going to take a lot of effort – but eventually I said, you know, if I find out about this problem and do nothing, I’d feel terrible.”