Merrie England food restaurants gone

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[bigpriest]

First time I've ever seen the name - 60 years!

[RicksAlfas]

I thought they were nationwide. Didn't realise they were a Yorkshire thing.
I suspect they've had the same customers for 60 years and their numbers are dwindling...

[MC Bodge]

RicksAlfas said:

I thought they were nationwide. Didn't realise they were a Yorkshire thing.
I suspect they've had the same customers for 60 years and their numbers are dwindling...

Not even Yorkshire, only in the Halifax-Huddersfield area, so hardly a national household name.

Oddly, I was familiar with the name, only because I vaguely recall seeing these peculiarly named places -Presumably in Huddersfield when I worked there in the late 90s (and maybe when I went there again a couple of years ago).

[MC Bodge]

RicksAlfas said:

I thought they were nationwide. Didn't realise they were a Yorkshire thing.
I suspect they've had the same customers for 60 years and their numbers are dwindling...

I suspect that you are correct, given the description of them:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2g314z0dgo

[boyse7en]

bigpriest said:

First time I've ever seen the name - 60 years!

I'm not quite that old, but I've never heard of them either.

[MC Bodge]

boyse7en said:

bigpriest said:

First time I've ever seen the name - 60 years!

I'm not quite that old, but I've never heard of them either.

Don't be surprised. It was only ever in a small corner of West Yorkshire. It was not quite Starbucks.

[ExBoringVolvoDriver]

Wife had a relative who was a manager there for many years before she retired a couple of years ago.

It was going downhill then with cost cutting and less footfall.

[ExBoringVolvoDriver]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Wrong company accounts - I knew something was amiss when I saw investment properties.

IIRC the original owners sold out, hence new company hasn t filed any accounts yet.

Found the old company accounts and looks like it occurred in 2024 when they had £1.5m of cash in the bank!

Be interesting to know how much the new owner paid for it.

More info

https://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/business/merrie-e...

Also apparently staff turned up today to be told what was happening

Edited by ExBoringVolvoDriver on Tuesday 28th July 17:18

Edited by ExBoringVolvoDriver on Tuesday 28th July 17:22

[Mobile Chicane]

I'd never heard of this chain.

I thought the thread would be about Sorrel in Dorking closing.

[bigpriest]

boyse7en said:

bigpriest said:

First time I've ever seen the name - 60 years!

I'm not quite that old, but I've never heard of them either.

I meant the announcement mentioned the company was 60 years old
But then realised I'm 57, so as you were.

[balise]

Excellent apple pie and roast beef sandwiches.

I went about 5 years ago, previously having gone more than 25 years ago. Not much had changed.

[PhilAsia]

ExBoringVolvoDriver said:

Also apparently staff turned up today to be told what was happening

The problem as I see the world...

[PhilAsia]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

1914 trenches whistle... The whistlers do not give an eff...

[boyse7en]

balise said:

Excellent apple pie and roast beef sandwiches.

To be fair, if that was the highlight of the menu they deserve to go under.

[normalbloke]

boyse7en said:

balise said:

Excellent apple pie and roast beef sandwiches.

To be fair, if that was the highlight of the menu they deserve to go under.

Come on then, let’s see the menu..

[soad]

This is fairly local. I don’t remember walking past it though, unlike the greasy spoons in Leeds city centre (many gone too).

[Jamescrs]

I know the Merrie England. Think I was in the one at Salendine Nook a couple of times last year.

Most of PH won’t have a clue what it is very much a small local chain but sad to hear it’s going to disappear. I took some work colleagues there when we had been working locally and they all loved it, a few of them went back there on their own since.

Was part of my upbringing growing up in Huddersfield, my Grandma used to take me there for lunch.