Hopwood Hall is a Grade II*-listed two-storey brick-and-stone manor house, built in a quadrangle around a timber-framed hall that has been dated back to 1426. Some of the current building dates back to the early 17th century, with some late-16th century elements. The 1830s ice house in the grounds is also listed. After over 500 years, the Hopwoods were no longer living at the estate in 1923. The Hall was utilised by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation during World War II. The corporation used it, in conjunction with Blackfriars House, to run the firm during the war years. After the war, in 1946, the Hall became a training ground for Roman Catholic teachers under the De La Salle Brothers. On part of the estate grounds, the Brothers built a concrete chapel designed by Frederick Gibberd, now deconsecrated but a listed building. It has been retained for use by Hopwood Hall College as the Milnrow Building.
Occupants and owners
Hopwood family
The family name Hopwood is a corruption of "Hopwode", which dates from when a Knight was granted land between the then townships of Hopwood, Thornham, and Middleton. Thesse estates - Hopwood, Birch, Stanleycliffe and Thornham - were ruled thereafter by the specific family of "Hopwode de Hopwode". For a period of at least 500 years, the Hopwoods were interred in the churchyard of the Church of St Leonard, Middleton. The family is documented since before 1380, when Alain de Hopwood was mentioned. Edmund Hopwood was a magistrate and sheriff during the Commonwealth of England, and a member of the Presbyterian congregation at Bury.
The poet Lord Byron, stayed with the Gregge-Hopwood family at Hopwood Hall from the end of September 1811 for about 10 days. He had come up to try and sell parts of the Byron family estate in Rochdale, a complex deal that was not to be completed fully in his lifetime. The 23-year-old poet probably spent his days at the Hall revising the draft of his ground breaking poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. A first hand account of his stay and the impression he made on the Gregge-Hopwood family and their friends can be found in an essay 'Byron’s Week in Middleton', by Anne Falloon of Middleton Archaeological Society, published in the Byron Journal of 2013.
In September 2017, The Daily Telegraph released a feature article announcing American actor and entrepreneur Hopwood DePree, a descendant of the Hopwoods, had accepted an offer from Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council to take over Hopwood Hall with plans to restore it. DePree had been living in Hollywood and subsequently has moved to England to pursue the restoration full time. Emergency work to make the building structurally sound and waterproof started in May 2018.
