A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Colonel Edward Robert Gregge-Hopwood, born in 

 i8 4 6. 16 



Hopwood Hall is situated in a hollow on the high 

 ground between Middleton and Rochdale about a 



GREGGE. Or three 

 trefoils dipped between 

 two cheveroneh sable. 



HOPWOOD. Paly of 

 six argent and "vert. 



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 

 I yth 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 

 Jiall has disappeared, and corridors have encroached on 

 the quadrangle on two sides, reducing its size to about 

 50 ft. by 24ft., 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. 



Architecturally the house has little distinction, the 

 picturesque effect of the exterior from the south- 

 cast being produced by the gables and bay win- 

 dows and by the pleasant colour of the red bricks 

 and grey stone roofs, in a setting of foliage and 

 relieved with ivy. The many well-designed brick 

 chimneys, mostly with circular shafts, are also a good 

 feature in the view of the house from this side. The 

 north front is uninteresting, a general sense of flatness 

 prevailing, though the elevation is an evenly balanced 

 one with a wide six-light mullioned and transomed win- 

 dow at each side of the central archway, and three win- 

 dows of six lights above. The entrance to the quad- 

 rangle is under a segmental arch with moulded jambs 

 and label over terminating in an upturned volute, a 

 .detail repeated on the window-heads on this side, and 

 towards the court. The original north wing is 60 ft. 

 in length, the west wing having apparently been 

 originally set back ; but at a later time this has been 

 rebuilt and brought into line with the north front, 

 making a total unbroken line of frontage of over Soft, 

 under one roof. The quadrangle itself now serves 

 only to light the rooms and corridors, the entrances 

 to the house being by doorways on either side of the 

 main gateway, which is I o ft. wide, and accessible 

 only from the servants' wing either through the dining- 



room and smoke-room, or by going round the corridor 

 on the south and east sides. To the east of the gateway 

 is the entrance hall, and the range of apartments known 

 as the saloon, library, drawing-room, oak room, and 

 boudoir occupies the east and south wings, the dining- 

 room being in the west wing. The north wing and the 

 main part of the south wing are apparently of ijth- 

 century date, but in nearly all cases the stonework 

 of the windows has been cemented and painted over 

 and all detail lost, the mullions and jambs to the bay 

 window of the oak room in the south front alone having 

 been left untouched. They are, however, in a very 

 crumbling and decayed state. On the east wing is 

 a very good angle lead head with the date 1690 

 and the initials of John and Elizabeth Hopwood, 

 but it is not in its original position, and to what 

 part of the house the date refers is not clear. The 

 south-east corner of the building (now the library) 

 appears to have been erected in the i8th century, 

 apparently in 1755, which date is on a spout head, 

 and similar spout heads without the date but 

 with a hart tripping, are in other parts of the 

 building. A copy of an old drawing of the house 

 now at the Hall shows this angle as first built with 

 chamfered quoins, flat sash windows and hipped roof, 

 and a low wing between it and the bay window on 

 the east end of the north range. This low wing gave 

 place some time in the last century to the lofty build- 

 ing with stone battlements and large mullioned and 

 transomed windows of nine lights which is now the 

 distinguishing feature of the east side of the house. 

 In recent times also new stone mullioned bay windows 

 have been substituted for the original sashes in the 

 1 8th-century portion, and a great stone bay window 

 with three transoms has been added to the drawing- 

 room in the south front, going up the full height of 

 the room, which is equal to the two stories of the rest 

 of the house ; it replaces a former wooden bay of 

 less height. Nearly all the distinguishing features 

 of the south and east elevations are modern. The 

 interior also is largely modernized, but contains two 

 good oak staircases, one in the east corridor and the 

 other at the west end of the south wing, both having 

 square newels terminating in the Hopwood crest 

 (an eagle's head, out of a coronet, holding in its 

 beak a trefoil). The walls of the principal rooms 

 are panelled with 18th-century oak panelling, and 

 the house contains a great deal of oak furniture, the 

 greater part of which, however, has been collected in 

 modern times. The corridors go round the south 

 and east sides of the quadrangle on the first floor as 

 below, and the bedroom over the oak room on 

 the south side retains its original oak panelling. 

 At the end of the south corridor on the ground floor 

 is an ingle nook nearly 6 ft. deep, with a good stone 

 fireplace in which are carved the arms of Hopwood 

 impaling a coat of eight quarters with the Hopwood 

 crest and another, a hart tripping, the motto * By 

 degrees,' and the initials and date F G, 1658. The 

 same date and initials occur on a stone fireplace in the 

 boudoir, a small room in the south wing, but their 

 claim to belong to Hopwood Hall in the 1 7th century 

 is not clear, they having possibly been brought here 

 by the Gregges from another place at a later date. 



STANICLIFFE was an estate of the Knights 

 Ho pitallers, 17 held in 1612 by Edmund Hop- 



16 Foster, Lanes. Pedigrees. 



1 7 Lands in Middleton were among the 



Hospitallers' possessions in 1292; Plac. 

 de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 375. 



By a charter of the earlier part of the 

 1 3th century, Syherit eldest daughter of 



