Hopwood Hall, Lancashire, England

Hopwood Hall (From Victoria County History) As in the case of other hamlets in the parish, HOPWOOD was held of the lord of Middleton by a family adopting the local surname. Little is known of it, (fn. 5) though pedigrees were recorded at visitations from 1533 to 1664. (fn. 6)

After the death of Edmund Hopwood in 161 2 it was found that he held the manor of Hopwood with its appurtenances, thirty messuages, a water-mill, 300 acres of arable land, &c., of Sir Richard Assheton as of his manor of Middleton, by knight's service and 5s. 8d. rent. He held other lands in Hopwood, Thornham, Middleton, and Manchester. (fn. 7) His grandson and heir, Edmund, lived through the Civil War apparently without taking any active part in it; (fn. 8) he was, however, a magistrate and served as sheriff in 1650, (fn. 9) and was also a member of the Bury Presbyterian Classis. (fn. 10) He was buried at Middleton, 6 March 1665–6. (fn. 11) His great-grandson, Dr. Robert Hopwood, died in 1762 (fn. 12) without issue, and bequeathed the estates to his wife for life, and after her death, which happened in 1773, to Edward Gregge of Chamber Hall in Werneth, who accordingly succeeded, and took the name of Hopwood. Services rendered during the incursion of the Young Pretender in 1745 are said to have been the motive for the bequest. (fn. 13) The estate has since descended regularly from Edward Gregge Hopwood, (fn. 14) who died in 1798, to his son, Robert who was high sheriff in 1802, (fn. 15) and died in 1854; his grandson Captain Edward John, who died in 1891; and his great-grandson, the present owner, Lieut. Colonel Edward Robert Gregge-Hopwood, born in 1846. (fn. 16)

Hopwood Hall is situated in a hollow on the high ground between Middleton and Rochdale about a mile directly north of the former town. It is a picturesque two-story brick building on a stone base, set round a small quadrangle, with the entrance on the north side and the principal front facing south. Though usually stated to belong to the Tudor period there is nothing in the house as it stands at present to suggest a date earlier than the first part of the 17th century; but it is possible that some of the brickwork in the south front may be before this time. The original arrangement seems to have been that the house was built round four sides of a courtyard about 60 ft. long from west to east and 30 ft. from north to south, with the great hall in the south range opposite to the entrance. In later rebuildings this first arrangement has been followed to some extent, but the hall has disappeared, and corridors have encroached on the quadrangle on two sides, reducing its size to about 50 ft. by 24 ft., and the plan is now that of a suite of living rooms on all four sides of the central space, with a large western servants' wing added in later times. The older parts are constructed with small 2 in. bricks, in contrast to much of the later work, but both the older and later buildings are of more than one date.