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

People today who look for genealogy web sites typically locate birth and marriage records, newspaper clippings, pale photos or maybe a extended-misplaced relative.

Hopwood DePree located a 60-space English manor.

As a baby increasing up in Holland, Mich., in the 1970s, Mr. DePree was transfixed when his beloved maternal grandfather, Pap, a background buff, explained to him about a substantial slice of rolling land across the ocean where by his forebears had a grand household named Hopwood Castle.

A castle in Britain owned by his family members? Named for his loved ones? No way.

Quickly forward a few and a half a long time. Mr. DePree, by then an actor and producer in Los Angeles, was at his personal computer early one night in the spring of 2013, trawling an ancestry internet site.

The earlier experienced turn out to be a favorite spot for him following Pap’s demise in 2008 and, two decades later, the sudden demise of his father, Thomas, from a enormous heart attack. Mr. DePree was left unmoored, unsure about the way ahead. Tracing his roots was a consolation.

That fateful night, he noticed a url to a tale about a Lord Hopwood of Hopwood Hall and an outdated black-and-white image of a pretty stately home in Middleton, England, just outside Manchester. Progressively curious, Mr. DePree built some electronic mail inquiries and booked a flight to see firsthand the family seat.

A 50,000-square-foot, brick-and-stone manor designed in a quadrangle all-around a timber-framed hall, Hopwood Hall had witnessed far better centuries. The roof leaked prodigiously, dry rot was ascendant, moisture seeped from the walls, plaster was slipping from the ceilings, windows have been lacking panes, flooring ended up lacking boards, many sections of the property experienced been vandalized. Trees have been expanding out of the chimneys.

And however … there have been doorways dotted with rivets from the medieval period — some sections of the property date to 1426 — and doorways with their initial hand-cast components. The wood-paneled walls in one of the parlors had been decorated with intricate carvings from baseboard to ceiling. The fireplace in a space recognized as the reception hall was embellished with an iteration of the Hopwood family members coat of arms the family’s heraldic animal, a stag and the Hopwood family motto, “By Levels.”

“When I walked in, I felt a thing in me transform just about right away. I understood this spot was specific,” Mr. DePree, 52, reported. “But I was instructed all through that initial check out that if practically nothing was carried out, in just five or 10 yrs, Hopwood Hall would crumble.”

He chronicles his efforts to conserve the hall in “Downton Shabby: One particular American’s Top Do it yourself Journey Restoring His Family’s English Castle,” a memoir released late past month.

Hopwoods lived in the house until the early 1920s, in accordance to the guide. But following the two heirs were being killed all through Environment War I, their grieving elderly parents shut up the property and moved to London. A cotton enterprise employed the hall through Entire world War II, and in 1946 an buy of monks moved in for a couple decades. By the late 1980s, the house had come to be the duty of the local authority, which had neither the will nor the wherewithal to keep it. Then came Mr. DePree.

The “DIY” in the book’s title is, maybe, much more than a bit misleading: Mr. DePree, who bears a passing resemblance to Owen Wilson, is not the dude reglazing the windows, plastering the walls, stabilizing the basis or changing floorboards. Hopwood Hall’s longtime caretaker, Bob Wall, has joked that the acronym actually stands for “Dim Inexperienced Yank.”

But credit score the place credit rating is due: The Yank has arrive a prolonged way from the humiliating second when he stood in a parking great deal of a Home Depot in Los Angeles, pretty much in tears simply because he could not determine out how to do the job the adhere-on tiles he experienced bought for his toilet flooring.

“I’ve realized how to blend mortar and make plaster molds. I’ve discovered to do pointing on bricks,” said Mr. DePree, who bought his property in Los Angeles 5 years ago and moved complete time to Middleton to immerse himself in the preservation initiatives. “But I would not say at all that I’m a competent craftsman by any stretch of the creativity.”

Even now, he has performed lots of significant lifting given that 2017, when he signed a agreement with the Rochdale Borough Council, the regional authority, to assume accountability for Hopwood Corridor. (The Council experienced initially verified his familial bona fides.) The offer gave Mr. DePree five many years to occur up with a practicable and completely in depth plan to save his ancestral dwelling and build a sustainable product to keep the lights on.

“His quest really is the stuff of dreams,” Neil Emmott, the chief of the Council, wrote in an email. “When we initially read about Hopwood’s ambitions, we weren’t confident if they constituted a practical proposal. However, gradually but absolutely, we have witnessed how his challenging get the job done and resolve coupled with the support of lots of neighborhood volunteers is turning the fantasy into fact.”

“Hopwood was just experience his way when I very first met him, but he’s develop into far more self-assured,” stated Geoff Wellens, a community historian. “I genuinely feel that if any one can get the job performed, it’s him. It’s his family’s previous home. He has that loved ones tie.”

Little bit by little bit, Mr. DePree has turn into the public facial area of the energy, its cheerleader in chief and dedicated fund-raiser. Modern grants from Historic England, a authorities company, and the Rochdale Borough Council overall much more than $1 million.

Many thanks to an acquaintance, Mr. DePree was also invited to join Historic Homes, an association comprising the homeowners of numerous of Britain’s premier personal residences. At the to start with gathering of the team that he attended, he achieved the incredibly welcoming Lord and Lady Carnarvon — “Geordie and Fiona” — the proprietors of Highclere Castle, in which considerably of “Downton Abbey” was shot. He also met Julian Fellowes, the creator of “Downton Abbey” and the proprietor of Stafford House, a grand pile on the south coast of England.

“Start with the roof,” Mr. Fellowes encouraged the novice about Hopwood Corridor. “Make guaranteed it is dry and go from there.”

Shortly after his shift to Britain, Mr. DePree started a YouTube channel, publishing films for friends and supporters to chart the development of the restoration. He also wrote a one particular-guy exhibit about his travails and triumphs, and toured it at comedy festivals all around the place.

The value tag for the property advancement is $13 million, with yearly running charges believed at $800,000, Mr. DePree reported. Proceeds from his demonstrate have been contributed to the cause a chunk of the royalties from his ebook will go towards it, also.

“Many region properties in the U.K. have had to come across approaches to reinvent them selves to retain up with the monumental fees of running, staffing and servicing, and Hopwood Corridor is on a very similar route,” Mr. DePree reported. He hopes to switch the manor into an arts hub for the regional neighborhood and a tourist vacation spot. A wedding spot, also. Hopwood Corridor will have around 25 bedrooms to accommodate the festivities.

There are now at times as quite a few as 30 paid staff and eager volunteers at the corridor on a presented working day. “We’re transferring forward very immediately,” reported Mr. DePree through a current Zoom get in touch with as he walked via the carriage entrance, at this time a keeping place for the large squares of slate that will before long pave the roof. “This 12 months has been interesting because I’ve been strolling into rooms that it experienced not been harmless to wander into just before.”

But progress is not always continual. “A number of weeks ago, there was evidence that it’s possible there were bats in the hall, so we had to quickly halt what we had been carrying out and verify with gurus and do a bat survey, since bats are a secured species,” he mentioned.

Flying mammals are between the a lot of complications. Hopwood Corridor is also a “Grade 2* listed” making, a designation by Historic England for buildings of individual architectural or historical interest. Therefore, walls just can’t be knocked down willy-nilly a recently uncovered doorway cannot be pried open up with out permission.

Bit by bit, Mr. DePree has grasped that he is not in Los Angeles anymore. “I’m studying about heritage capabilities and knowing that you just cannot use present day supplies,” he stated.

In other words, drywall from Residence Depot is not an alternative. As an alternative, you have to track down some goat hair and, employing medieval procedures, blend it with lime mortar. And no off-the-rack windows — you have to use precise glass, Mr. DePree stated, “and load it into a leaded-glass window, which is a full ability unto itself.”

Under the conditions of his settlement with the Council, Mr. DePree can go into Hopwood Hall as shortly as it is protected to do so — perhaps this 12 months. At some issue, he’ll formally develop into the proprietor of the property. “We’re finding nearer to the position that it can be entrusted to me,” he said.

“Obviously, the loved ones connection was a providing stage with the Council,” Mr. DePree continued. “I don’t assume any of this would have happened without the need of that relationship.”

His grandfather, he explained, would be very pleased. “He beloved record and he cherished his Hopwood identity,” Mr. DePree mentioned. “Maybe a number of hundred yrs from now, people will read about this undertaking and there will be just one or two traces about me.”

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