US filmmaker in legal battle over ‘Downton Shabby’

Ian YoungsCulture reporterBBCHopwood DePree moved from Los Angeles to Manchester in 2017 to revive Hopwood HallA former US filmmaker has launched a Excessive Court docket battle towards an English council to realize management of the ancestral stately dwelling he spent seven years making an attempt to avoid wasting from wreck.Hopwood DePree has led an operation to safeguard historic Hopwood Corridor in Middleton, Better Manchester, since 2017, and says he complied with an settlement with Rochdale Borough Council that gave him the choice to purchase the constructing.Nevertheless, the council say he didn’t fulfil the circumstances of the deal, and locked him out in November 2024.DePree, who revealed a e-book known as Downton Shabby in 2022 about his work to revive the corridor, has now taken motion in an try and be declared its authorized proprietor.’Stunning’ conductDePree says his grandfather informed him tales of “Hopwood Fort” as a toddler in Michigan, however that he solely found the true corridor existed whereas researching his household historical past in 2013.Elements of the 60-room constructing date from the 1420s, however each direct heirs have been killed in World Struggle One and the final members of the family moved out within the Twenties.It was derelict by the point DePree visited, and he says he was informed in 2015 that it will be past restore in one other 5 to 10 years.Getty ImagesHopwood Corridor, pictured in 2022He moved to the UK to spearhead the trouble to put it aside, signing a cope with the council in 2017 saying he may purchase the corridor for £1 on the situation he gained planning permission to develop it.DePree started work on the crumbling constructing and bought planning permission in 2022 to refurbish it as an occasion and hospitality venue. He says he has spent £750,000 of his personal cash on the challenge.However he says relations soured when the council’s Rochdale Growth Company grew to become extra concerned in 2024, and DePree’s authorized case accuses the company of making an attempt to “poison every part my group and I had labored so arduous to realize”.He claims the council stopped co-operating and went behind his again, and that their conduct has been “evasive, deceptive and at instances stunning”.A council spokesperson stated: “We do not touch upon ongoing authorized discussions and do not intend to elaborate on earlier statements we’ve got made on this topic.”Giant elements of the corridor had fallen right into a state of disrepairThe council has beforehand stated any sale would rely on DePree having “a commercially viable enterprise mannequin to safe the long run way forward for the corridor”.Final November, the council stated it had determined to not renew the choice settlement after consultants stated his plans have been “unlikely to have the ability to safe future public or personal funding”.At the moment, a council spokesman stated DePree “had not been in a position to produce a viable proposal, regardless of having had seven years to take action”, which it stated was a situation of the sale. The authority stated it “had a duty to discover different choices” so as to “shield the general public monies invested to this point”.In November, council chief Neil Emmott stated: “Mr DePree was requested to satisfy a variety of circumstances after we entered into our settlement with him. We’d be failing in our obligation to guard our historic belongings if we did not maintain Mr DePree to the phrases of this settlement.”The council stated it spent £557,000 between 2017 and 2024 for important repairs, with nearly £1m contributed by Historic England. The council stated it was now spending an additional £700,000 on roof repairs and a feasibility research.In line with DePree’s authorized paperwork, the council has additionally argued that the planning permission was inadequate to satisfy the phrases for a sale beneath the settlement. He’s disputing that.He’s additionally disputing whether or not he wanted to supply a “viable” enterprise mannequin to adjust to the circumstances for a sale, and his court docket papers say he does have “a transparent imaginative and prescient, a plan and the sources to rescue Hopwood Corridor”.’No different alternative’DePree informed BBC Information he believes he has complied together with his finish of the settlement.”After I took the challenge on, the corridor was only a few years from fully falling down and turning into a wreck,” he stated.”We labored so arduous and poured every part into it. I moved international locations. I bought British citizenship. I left behind a life and offered my dwelling. I went by a lot with the idea that the council was being open and trustworthy with me, and I trusted them.”He added: “In the end I had an settlement that I signed with them that I fulfilled. My legal professionals really feel that we fulfilled that, and the council went towards that, and I felt that I had no different alternative apart from to file court docket proceedings towards them.”DePree and his household are concerned in property growth, and he offered his dwelling within the Hollywood Hills to assist fund the challenge.In his former life, DePree was an actor, author, producer and director whose early makes an attempt to make it huge in Hollywood have been depicted in low-budget documentary Rhinoskin: The Making of a Film Star.He wrote, directed and appeared within the well-received unbiased rom-com The Final Huge Attraction, and produced the 2010 drama Virginia starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.