{"id":967142,"date":"2026-05-17T18:46:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/967142\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T18:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:46:27","slug":"the-fight-over-hopwood-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/967142\/","title":{"rendered":"The fight over Hopwood Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

A spat between a Hollywood actor and Rochdale council over control of historic Hopwood Hall has raged for more than a year. Now they will battle it out in the high court.<\/p>\n

Hopwood DePree was leading the redevelopment of the Grade II*-listed site in Middleton<\/a> until the town hall cut ties with him in 2024. This long-running saga began over a decade ago when the American crossed the pond in a bid to restore what he believes to be his ancestral home.<\/p>\n

In 2017 there was excitement that the site, which dates back to the 1400s, could finally be restored as the council entered into an \u2018exclusivity agreement\u2019 with Mr DePree. That exclusivity agreement came to an abrupt end on October 31, 2024.<\/p>\n

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Mr DePree\u2019s dream was shattered as the council cut ties with him so they could speak to other investors, which the exclusivity agreement prevented.<\/p>\n

The local authority felt the US-born Middletonian had not made enough progress and ended the agreement. The 56-year-old American claims to have spent more than \u00a3750,000 on restoring the property, as well as putting in numerous hours alongside members of the local community.<\/p>\n

\"Hopwood<\/p>\n

Hopwood Hall pictured after Hopwood DePree joined the project(Image: Hopwood DePree)<\/p>\n

Mr DePree believes he had a \u2018legally binding agreement to purchase Hopwood Hall\u2019, which the council will now have to dispute in court.<\/p>\n

Once the exclusivity agreement came to an end, the site was locked to volunteers involved in the project. The relationship between the council and the redevelopment team has soured since then.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of locals flocked to Smalley Memorial Hall for a public meeting on November 20, 2024. Members of the \u2018Friends of Hopwood Hall\u2019 group delivered passionate speeches on the unravelling situation.<\/p>\n

The campaigners have even started a petition urging the council to reverse their decision. At the public meeting, the volunteers made their case that they wouldn\u2019t continue their efforts at the hall without Mr DePree at the helm, despite the council saying they want to keep them in the loop.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hopwood pictured outside the hall(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Rochdale council said a number of health and safety breaches led them to close off the site. As the owner, issues on the site are the town hall\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n

Mr DePree threatened legal action for well over a year as he tried to negotiate with the Rochdale council, who own the site. Now a two-day trial in the high court has been penciled in for September 29 and 30.<\/p>\n

The American spoke recently about how he is \u2018looking forward to this coming out in public\u2019 and that he feels he has to \u2018stand up and fight for what’s right\u2019.<\/p>\n

Speaking previously on the legal challenge, Mr DePree said: \u201cMy legal team sent Rochdale council yet another detailed letter setting out our position and Rochdale Council asked for more time to respond.<\/p>\n

\"Hopwood<\/p>\n

Hopwood DePree at the Smalley Memorial Hall public meeting in Middleton.(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, on August 19, 2025 Rochdale council came back to say that they didn\u2019t need to tell us their full position on the agreement but if we didn\u2019t accept that they were right, they would consider legal action against me.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo after almost 11 months of trying to work with Rochdale council to find a resolution, not to mention them allowing all the community volunteers\u2019 work in the gardens falling back into racked and ruin, and us having eventually obtained some evidence of shocking conduct by the council through FOI (freedom of information) and SAR (subject access request), we were left with no choice but to sue Rochdale council in the High Court of Justice to force them to honour our agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the council says\"Rochdale<\/p>\n

Rochdale Town Hall(Image: Rochdale Council)<\/p>\n

Rochdale council has not commented on the upcoming court case.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the council previously said: \u201cHopwood Hall is grade II listed manorial hall which is owned by the council and has been out of use for a number of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2017, the council entered into an options agreement with Hopwood DePree which gave him the option to buy the building for a nominal fee if he could produce a commercially viable business model to secure the long term future of the hall, alongside a detailed planning permission.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough this agreement has been renewed a number of times since 2017, a viable business case and funding strategy has not been forthcoming, and so the council\u2019s cabinet has made the decision to not renew the options agreement.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Grade-II listed Hopwood Hall in Middleton(Image: Rochdale Council)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council sees Hopwood Hall as a very important part of Middleton\u2019s heritage and wants it to play a key role in the area\u2019s future. Over the last seven years, to support the restoration of the hall and protect its long term future, the council has funded and commissioned a series of repairs to the building and, alongside other public bodies like Historic England, has invested almost \u00a31.7m into the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Hopwood DePree has not been able to produce a viable proposal, despite having had seven years to do so, and having been given advice and support from the council and Rochdale Development Agency throughout that period, in order to protect the public monies invested to date, we now have a responsibility to explore alternative options.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was Hopwood DePree\u2019s vision<\/p>\n

(Image: Hopwood DePree)<\/p>\n

Hopwood DePree grew up on stories of his family’s long-lost ancestral castle in England. After research into his family history he connected the dots to Hopwood Hall in Middleton. Having decided to ditch Hollywood for Middleton and the Grade-II* listed hall, Mr DePree instigated a community effort to restore it, powered by volunteers.<\/p>\n

Many members of the community bought into his vision to transform the hall as Mr DePree was granted planning permission to carry out work in 2022. As well as fixing the deteriorating interior of the hall, which had been left to rack and ruin, there was a masterplan for the building\u2019s future use.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Image: Hopwood DePree)<\/p>\n

The plan included an outdoor cinema screen; space for education workshops; a gift shop; a heritage trail; a wedding and events space; and a 25-bedroom hotel. That was in addition to structural restoration; a new access road; and a car park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spat between a Hollywood actor and Rochdale council over control of historic Hopwood Hall has raged for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":967143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,136819,2465,9548,285,1170,1171,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-967142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-hopwood-hall","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-middleton","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-rochdale","16":"tag-rochdale-council","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116591408723990036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/967143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}