A former Hollywood star’s bold £13m undertaking to revive a Lancashire stately residence tied to his household’s historical past for over 400 years lie in ruins after he was dumped from the undertaking and locked out of the location.

Hopwood DePree, the actor-turned-restorer, left the glitz of Tinseltown behind in 2017 to embark on an bold undertaking: respiratory new life into the historic Hopwood Corridor in Rochdale.

Over time, he labored with native volunteers to revive the Grade II listed property, gaining planning permission for a daring transformation that included a 25-bedroom lodge, outside cinema, giftshop and heritage path.

But, in a bitter twist, Rochdale Borough Council has refused to resume their settlement, citing an absence of progress, leaving DePree’s dream teetering on the brink.

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Born in Holland, Michigan in 1970, DePree moved to Los Angeles the place he attended the College of Southern California and in 1995, he produced, directed, wrote and starred in his first function as an actor. He went on to work with stars together with Jennifer Connelly and 4 time Academy Award nominee Ed Harris earlier than he made the transfer throughout the pond.

As a toddler, his grandfather would inform him tales bedtime tales about Hopwood Corridor, however he had all the time dismissed the tales as fiction. Nonetheless, many years later he found it to be an actual place, and realised it was nonetheless standing simply 5 miles north of Manchester.

Constructed 600 years in the past in 1426, the Grade II listed constructing has given shelter to a number of well-known figures together with Man Fawkes and Lord Byron.

However after the household’s two male heirs have been killed within the First World Warfare, Mr DePree’s ancestor’s offered the corridor in 1922 to Lancashire Cotton Company earlier than Rochdale Council bought it within the Nineties.

The corridor was left empty and over quite a lot of years, fell into disrepair.

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However – undeterred by the overgrown grounds and crumbling roof – Mr DePree realised his dream to revive his ancestral residence to its former glory and at some point hopefully reside in it.

After getting in contact with the council, he entered into an exclusivity settlement with them, permitting him to take management of the corridor’s refurbishment and buy the property for a ‘nominal sum’ if he produced a viable marketing strategy.

With the neighborhood behind him, seven years of improvement led by himself and native volunteers has seen the manor and its grounds remodel from the as soon as derelict website.

However earlier this 12 months, Mr DePree was left devastated when he discovered himself locked out the manor, and discovering the council had determined to not renew their settlement with him.

He stated: “I’m completely flabbergasted as is the neighborhood by the behaviour of Rochdale Borough Council. To say that it’s disappointing can be an understatement. The volunteers and locals who’ve labored so tirelessly are devastated.”

The council say the settlement hinged on Mr DePree’s skill to convey forth a commercially viable enterprise mannequin to safe the “long run way forward for the corridor, alongside an in depth planning permission”, which it says he had not produced.

Nonetheless, Mr DePree advised The Unbiased that he has “revered and upheld all our obligations,” and even introduced a marketing strategy to the council to which he claims he obtained help for.

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He additionally secured planning permission in 2022 to convey this industrial imaginative and prescient to life, with an out of doors cinema display, lodge, reward store, occasions house and heritage path all set to be together with in his improvement of the corridor.

Native volunteers who’ve labored on the location for a number of years additionally discovered themselves bewildered as they have been additionally denied entry to the location earlier this 12 months.

In response to the council’s resolution, hundreds signed a petition in help of Mr DePree, demanding that the council permits the present undertaking to proceed.

The petition, which has collected over 4,000 signatures, asks the council to permit volunteers and Mr DePree resume their work, which has included enter from “many volunteers from the local people, in addition to heritage professionals, nationwide and worldwide funders and supporters.”

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Chief of Rochdale Borough Council, Councillor Neil Emmott, stated: “Hopwood Corridor is a neighborhood historic asset which implies an important deal to the folks of Middleton and certainly the broader borough. One thing as essential as that is about a lot a couple of particular person, nonetheless well-intentioned they could be. Public property are owned by our residents and we can not permit them to switch to a non-public particular person with out an excessive amount of care.

“Mr DePree was requested to fulfill quite a lot of situations after we entered into our settlement with him. We might be failing in our obligation to guard our historic property if we didn’t maintain Mr DePree to the phrases of this settlement.

“We all know that many native residents have put their coronary heart and soul into Hopwood Corridor’s restoration as volunteers on the undertaking. We’re very clear that we are going to proceed to contain these volunteers and the broader neighborhood in any future plans.”

Rochdale City Council will now perform a feasibility examine to evaluate how the historic asset might be introduced again into use.