I think I first heard about this book, the author and his family's "castle" (Hopwood Hall) in a New York Times article, around the time the book was published in 2022. The story appealed to my love of history, grand old houses and genealogy (not to mention the tongue-in-cheek nod to "Downton Abbey" in the title!).
Growing up in Holland, Michigan, Hopwood DePree was fed tales of his family history by both his beloved grandfather and his mother: his ancestors first came to America in the 1700s and founded the town of Hopwood, Pennsylvania. More intriguing to young Hopwood were the stories his grandfather told him about a grand castle in England that belonged to their family.
DePree moved to Los Angeles and became an actor and filmmaker, but renewed his interest in family history after his grandfather's death, and was clicking around on genealogy websites one night in 2013, when he found a photo of Hopwood Hall -- not quite a castle, but a grand English country manor with 60 rooms, set on 5,000 acres, near a town called Middleton, near Manchester. He and his family immediately tacked a visit to the ancestral home onto an already-planned trip to France.
Hopwood Hall was/is indeed the ancestral home of the Hopwood family and the focal point of community life in Middleton for more than five centuries (!). Notable figures such as Guy Fawkes and the poet Lord Byron are rumoured to have stayed there. But in 1921, after both of their sons and heirs to the property were killed during the First World War, the grieving parents abandoned their ancestral home, sold its contents, and moved to London. The house was used for various purposes over the next few decades, but despite the efforts of a small group of local historians and craftspeople, Hopwood Hall was long vacant, damaged by vandals and falling apart by the time DePree and his family visited. Nevertheless, what they saw was impressive enough that DePree couldn't get the place out of his mind. In relatively short order, despite his complete lack of handyman skills, he wound up moving to England and spearheading a community-wide effort to save and restore the house to its former glory.
This was a fun, easy, feel-good read, with a lot of fish-out-of-water humour as DePree adapts to life in Britain, and some interesting then-and-now photos. It ends at Christmastime 2019 -- with an epilogue dealing with the global pandemic in 2020, which shut down work on the house for many months. DePree spent a year with his family back in Michigan, where he began writing this book, but returned to England in 2021 to resume work there.
Unfortunately, since the book was published in 2022, the restoration project has hit yet another obstacle: in late 2024, the local municipal council terminated their agreement with DePree and locked the gates to the estate, claiming he had failed to satisfy the conditions of their original 2017 contract or provide a viable long-term business plan. DePree took the council to court; unfortunately, just last month, the judge ruled in favour of the council. DePree and his volunteers and supporters are exploring further legal options.
I've been following Hopwood DePree and Hopwood Hall on social media (including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube), and you can too. All the links are available through his website. You can also donate towards legal costs through the hall's Give Fund Go site.
I very much enjoyed this book, and I hope I can visit Hopwood Hall someday myself. :) 4.5 stars.
This was Book #37 read to date in 2026 (and Book #4 finished in November), bringing me to 93% of my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am currently 3 books ahead of schedule to meet my goal! (3 books to go!) You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books."
*** *** ***
CNBC note: Hopwood DePree was in his mid-40s at the beginning of this story; he's 56 now, never married, no kids. At several points in the story, he refers to his desire for children. I felt a flash of recognition when I read this passage in Chapter 1:
As I entered my forties, many of my friends were already married, having kids, settling down. Meanwhile, I was childless, in on-again-off-again relationships...Not only that, but I was struggling in my work. I'd always loved being an actor and producer, but I no longer felt the same passion I had when I'd first gotten into the business... the introspection also made me realize that many things hadn't panned out the way I'd expected...
I know some childless people find genealogy painful, knowing that their particular branch of the family tree ends with them. But I've always found it comforting, knowing that I'm part of something bigger (and that I am definitely not the only childless person in my family, including among the cousins of my own generation!). So I could very much relate to this passage from Chapter 1, too:
There was something about tracing my ancestors online that comforted me. Every time I found a new link or name, I felt a tug of connection. So many generations of our family, all their names on the site, each one of them a leaf on a tree, recorded for the ages. Those links and names felt like anchors, keeping me tied down to this crazy, spinning blue marble.
In Chapter 22, another heritage homeowner advises him: "These homes and gardens need children to grow up in them... that way, when the children get older, they care deeply about keeping it going." Later, Hopwood reflects -- in words that will no doubt resonate with some of us! -- on what she said, and on his desire for some descendants: "How could I possibly have children with everything else going on? And when? And with whom?" He thinks about a friend who hired a surrogate, briefly toys with the idea, but ultimately decides, "One life adventure at a time."
No comments:
Post a Comment