Local Issues
The Plight of Hopwood Hall
Hopwood Hall was the ancestral home of the Hopwood family and there has been a residence on the site of the present Hall since the 12th Century. The current Hopwood Hall is mostly thought to have been rebuilt in the 17-18th century with parts dating back much further and is officially a scheduled Grade 2 listed building of historical importance.
The historical points outlined below and many more besides are covered more fully in a book by Edwin Bannon about Brother Augustine. What follows here focuses on the last members of the Hopwood Family to reside at the Hall and the following sequence of events leading to its current tragic state of disrepair.
Read more about the Hopwood Family in 'Prominent Families' in the History section
1923: The Hopwood family vacate Hopwood Hall. The Hopwood family had owned the mansion and estate since the time of King John.
July 1946: The De La Salle Brothers purchase Hopwood Hall and grounds for £12,500. Other costs mean the initial outlay is £48,841. These initial costs are however dwarfed by much larger building and expansion costs.
1957: Hopwood Hall is officially scheduled as a building of historic interest.
August 1982: An announcement by the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science, William Waldegrave, during Margaret Thatcher's term as Prime Minister spells the beginning of the end of an era for De La Salle. He proposes that teacher training courses should end at the college. The Governors were given just six weeks to respond. Many students signed petitions.
1989: Teacher training courses end at De La Salle College. At this time the Old Hopwood Hall still maintained many of its old features including the oak panelling and was in a fair state of maintenance.
The Decline of Hopwood Hall
1990's: The rot sets in for the Old Hopwood Hall. De La Salle College is sold to Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council. The surrounding buildings are used once more for education. The council starts a new tertiary level college. Hopwood Hall College re-opens as a two campus college with the other campus at Rochdale. The Old Hall is surplus to their requirements and so begins to be neglected and falls into a state of disrepair, most of its remaining internal architectural features are plundered or destroyed by water damage through leaking roofs.
2009: Hopwood Hall in its present sorry neglected state, with the lead and many of the slate tiles missing from the roof and with many of its internal architectural features of interest like the 18th century oak panelling having been plundered or rotting away due to water damage caused by vandals and being left exposed to the elements. 
The Old Hopwood Hall is falling into ruin and is now all but land locked, with the access road through the NOW privately owned Hopwood Hall College being denied to private vehicles, any chance of this fine grade two listed building being brought back to its former glory are fast diminishing if not already gone.
What does the future hold for this historical building once one of Middleton's finest old manor houses with such great history? The present Hopwood Hall may not be the finest, most historical or even architecturally attractive building in Middleton but surely for the historical value of the place it stands and the Hopwood family history it deserves to be preserved.
Written by Mr Dennis Horner. Submitted March 2009Is there anything we can we do? Email your comments to me at colette@middletonia.co.uk
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