Edmund Hopwood was a magistrate and High Sheriff of Lancashire during the Commonwealth of England, and a member of the Presbyterian congregation at Bury.

[8][9] Hopwood Hall has been recognized for its collection of unusual intricate Jacobean stonework and wood carvings around fireplaces and doors.

[10] This included butlers, maids, cooks, cleaners, attendants, carriage drivers, farmers, beekeepers, blacksmiths, butchers, weavers, wood cutters, carpenters, stablehands, horsemen and ice keepers.

[12] On part of the estate grounds, the De La Salle Brothers built a concrete chapel (1964–65) designed by Frederick Gibberd (the architect of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral), now deconsecrated but a listed building.

[11] For a period, the monks made the basement into a bar and music venue for area college students, to raise revenue for upkeep of the hall; graffiti that reads "Get down and boogie" is still visible on a wall.

[11] RMBC did not have the resources to renovate or properly maintain the hall,[6] and in 1998, Historic England placed it on its Heritage at Risk Register.

[11] In 2017, the property was 5 to 10 years away from being largely unsalvageable - dry rotted wood was the norm, water seeped from the walls and roof, floors laid bare to earth, windows were missing, a tree grew from the chimney, buildings had been vandalized.

[6] DePree became interested in the property after researching his family history online and coming to visit;[6] RMBC verified his family connection through American Revolutionary War-era civil servant John Hopwood, and based on that connection, offered him an opportunity to buy it under conditions that he properly restore and maintain it, at which point he would become the new owner.

[19] In early November, he was issued with an order to vacate the building while the council explored other options for raising funds for restoration.

He had come up to try and sell parts of the Byron family estate in Rochdale, a complex deal that was not to be completed fully in his lifetime.

[21] In appreciation of the success of the poem, Byron gifted the Hopwood Family an extravagant fireplace dated 1658 which remains in the hall today.