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!
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