Wirral Life November 2019 | Page 43

W L MEET HOTELIER LORNA TYSON MBE OF MERE BROOK HOUSE So Lorna, how did you acquire Mere Brook House? Donald and I purchased Mere Brook House in 2002 as a private residence. In fact the brief I had been given by Donald was to find a modern new house as an investment with low maintenance near to the farm around £100K... and it's fair to say I strayed from the brief. Buying Mere Brook was based on emotion as we both fell in love with it and could see its potential although at that stage we had no plans to turn it into a business. Due to a shortage of funds we let it for four years and then in 2006 embarked on a major refurbishment programme for the main house. At what point did you decide to turn it into a business? At the time we were drawing up the plans I was still working full time as a Lecturer at Myerscough College, a college specialising in land based education, situated just North of Preston. I was fed up of commuting and was keen to be involved with the project management of the renovation. We had fortunately been able to sell a property we had inherited from my father which allowed us to improve the finances – so I decided to retire early from college and at that point we came up with the plan of turning Mere Brook into a high class bed and breakfast, although I maintain it was a wicked plot by Donald to make sure that when I retired I didn’t hassle him too much – and it has worked! When did it open and how has it grown? We opened in June 2008 with four en-suite bedrooms – as a former Lecturer I had attended lots of business meetings so knew what format worked best, so we also incorporated into the design of the ground floor facilities for meetings. We have grown slowly over the years. In September 2008, we hosted our first business meeting and then a couple of months later our first wedding reception. I also appointed our first member of staff in September 2008 and she still works here as Head Housekeeper and in the early days I was the chef cooking breakfasts, business lunches and meals at celebrations all with help from family and friends. In 2011 we renovated the former one bedroom cottage and garage to provide additional bedrooms and meeting facilities. What is your philosophy? I modelled the place on what I would have liked to have been offered when staying away from home, particularly when alone on business but also on family trips – somewhere that you could relax or work, with good facilities, friendly and helpful staff and quality food – but also somewhere that you could go to a kitchen and help yourself to a snack and eat it in a lounge or dining room and not end up holed up in your bedroom eating some junk food and feeling miserable. We hear a lot about your food at Mere Brook House, why is this so important to you? I think that is driven by our background as Donald and I are both farmers and passionate about quality food. In fact since opening Mere Brook, Donald has turned into a beekeeper and with help from his farm staff he now looks after almost 40 hives not only for honey production but also for breeding Queen bees. We have built up a great team of chefs and have continually developed our food offer sourcing either home produce from our veg garden and orchard or we buy locally whenever possible. We take our apples to a press in Dunham Massey and use apple juice for guests at breakfast as well as selling it on the bar but we also now have some apple juice made into still and sparkling cider which is very popular. We have become well known for the quality of our cakes which are made daily and offered to all guests. What is your favourite part of your job? It's so nice meeting people from all over the world and of course some of our returning guests are now friends. It's also a privilege to host some special occasions here and be part of making memories – but also the team and I find it very rewarding helping people at difficult times as some of our visitors maybe here to visit hospital or are attending a funeral wake. However none of this would be possible without the support of our brilliant team who put up with me and Donald and have bought into our vision! wirrallife.com 43