(NewsNation) — Hollywood film producer Hopwood DePree was told as a boy that an ancestor, whom he was named after, had left his family’s English castle in the 1700s to journey to America.
The estate, called “Hopwood Hall,” features 60 rooms, 812 windows, 35 chimneys, and 107 doors, but almost none of it is fit for human habitation.
“I went there out of curiosity, just to see it with my family, and I was spellbound. The age of the place, the history that was there, but it was falling apart. It was falling down as we saw it,” Depree said during an appearance Friday night on NewsNation’s “Banfield.”
If nothing was done, the castle would be lost forever. DePree set out on the adventure of a lifetime: restore the 600-year-old castle to its former glory.
DePree details his journey in his new memoir, “Downton Shabby: One American’s Ultimate DIY Adventure Restoring his Family’s English Castle!”
“We actually have a photograph in the book of a ghost, of “Lady Hopwood”, who haunts the hall, but I think she’s a good ghost,” DePree said.
Depree says it’s hard to know exactly how much the project will cost, but it will likely be millions of dollars.
“It’s really hard to know because it’s such an old house, and we have no idea what’s within the walls. It’s a lot of expense, a lot of heritage experts, a lot of craftsmen that have to be involved in it. And it takes a long, long time,” DePree said.