Manor

Hopwood DePree is celebrating the publication of his first book — “Downton Shabby: One American's Ultimate DIY Adventure Restoring His Family's English ...

He says he one day hopes to reside in a modest apartment inside the hall. Even as the estate was beginning to crumble into ruins, it was rated in the top 5% of structures that should be preserved. The oldest part of Hopwood Hall is timber-framed and constructed on what had been their hunting lodge in 1426. The renovated structure will have 25 bedrooms, which DePree says will be operated as a hotel.Funds from grants, donations Unlike his grandfather, who was proud to have the middle name Hopwood, DePree was resolved by the time he entered school that his middle name would not play well on the playground. Devastated, surviving family members moved to London. In 1922, the family put the estate up for sale but found that large country estates had become white elephants. As a child, DePree’s grandfather, Herbert Hopwood Black, told him about a castle in England that bore the name Hopwood, but young DePree knew his grandfather had never laid eyes on such a place. “It was unbelievable to me that the castle my grandfather told stories about actually existed,” DePree says. DePree wrote most of the book — which is getting favorable reviews for its self-effacing humor and insights — while visiting Holland during the first year of the pandemic. Soon he was in communication with Bob Wall, a local man who was leading an effort to preserve and restore the hall as an example of the cultural significance of an English country manor. DePree, who grew up in Holland, will be showing video and photos of Hopwood Hall — parts of which are 600 years old — while reading excerpts from the book. Publisher HarperCollins/William Morrow has DePree on a whirlwind tour, with events in Grand Rapids, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and six other stops in England, including a June 18 event at Hopwood Hall Estate itself.