2025
The first attempt
Encouraged to enter by Sue Millington, Clare competed in Miss GB Manchester 2025 and placed fifth. For many people that would have been the end of it. For Clare, it was the rehearsal.
About Clare
Rooted in Heyrod. Reaching further.
Clare Hopwood is a farmer's daughter from Heyrod, Stalybridge, the reigning Miss GB Manchester 2026, and the founder of Fields of Hope. This is her story so far — told plainly, because that's how she tells it.
- From
- Heyrod, Stalybridge
- Age
- 25 (June 2026)
- Title
- Miss GB Manchester 2026
- Founded
- Fields of Hope, 2026
The beginning
A farming family,
a farming life
Clare grew up in Heyrod, a village on the edge of Stalybridge in Tameside, in a family that works the land. Farm life shaped her early: early mornings, animals to feed whatever the weather, and the understanding that the work doesn't stop because you're tired.
Her connection to the local farming community runs deep — her grandfather looked after the Mottram Show ground, and the show remains part of family life. Alongside farming, Clare works as an accountant. (Details of her professional role to be confirmed with Clare before publication.)
“What the farm taught her, in Clare's own words, will sit here.” — Placeholder · from Clare's story interview
The reason
Why rural mental health
became her cause
Living rurally, Clare has seen first-hand how isolating it can be — and how rarely that isolation gets talked about. She believes mental health difficulties in farming families are underestimated and misunderstood, and that the silence around them costs people dearly.
She is particularly determined to support women in agriculture and young farmers — people building lives in an industry that asks everything of them.
Her personal account of why this matters to her will be added following her story interview, and published only with her approval. Read about Fields of Hope.
The Miss GB journey
Fifth in 2025.
First in 2026.
2026
The title — and two awards
Clare returned in 2026 and won the overall Miss GB Manchester title, along with the Charity Award and the Beach Body Award. The win was announced in June 2026. The next morning, she was back at work on the farm.
On Friday 16 October 2026, Clare represents Manchester at the Miss Great Britain 81st Anniversary National Final at Athena, Leicester.
What she wants from the platform
A year with a microphone.
A cause that outlasts it.
The title lasts a year. Clare's plan for it doesn't: honest conversations about rural mental health, support for women and young people in farming, fundraising for Manchester Mind and Cancer Research UK, and a Fields of Hope community that keeps growing after the crown passes on.