A potted history of the merrylees hotel

The original pub was built on this exact site on the corner of Hall and Stations Streets in 1918 at the request of Cam Merrylees. He ran the pub until his son Ged Merrylees took over in 1947. - not without incident! The pub burned to the ground on 5 December 1945, with the sad loss of two lives. Back then, you only had 48 hours to get another building completed to operate from, or you lost your liquor licence, so the pub operated in a kind of makeshift garage until 1953 when the current pub was built. (The makeshift pub was donated to the Excelsior Sports Club for use for their after functions.) Hec took over from his dad Ged and ran the pub until Dale Vercoe bought it, and immediately leased it to Bert and Charlie Quintal. A few other leasees followed until Bruce and Adrianna Ingpen bought the pub in 1990 and ran it for two years, until they leased it out to Mssrs Missen and McKee from 1992 until 1998. Phil Bunn had a good run from 1998 to 2016, until passing the torch to current publicans Nicola and Daniel who took over the lease in 2016 through ti 5th April 2023.

If you know more about the history of our hotel, please get in touch because we find it fascinating!

email merryleeshotel@gmail.com

phone 06 374 6484