Three Nuns name is dropped from pub as it's transformed into steakhouse

Food company Miller and Carter bought the Leeds Road site, near the Cooper Bridge junction, in 2014 and is enjoying its first week of trading after a two-month revamp.

Some residents of the town have raised concerns about the company dropping the Three Nuns name on the Mirfield Matters Facebook page.

But senior staff at the restaurant have denied that the title change affects the site’s heritage.

Assistant manager Sam Marsden said: “The heritage is still there. It’s not going to go away and we still have a blue plaque at the restaurant entrance.” She added: “The feedback that we’ve had has been absolutely amazing.”

The restaurant has taken on around 28 people.

The three nuns that the old name derived from were Cecilia Topclife, Joan Leverthorpe and Katherine Grace. According to local legend the nuns took refuge at a guesthouse of the nearby Kirklees Priory, which they ran as a hostelry after Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monastries in 1539.

The current building was built in 1939, with the site of the guesthouse apparently buried under the car park.

Katherine Grace is said to have become pregnant and drowned herself in a nearby stream.

Legend has it the building is haunted and it has appeared on ghost-hunting reality TV series Most Haunted.

Kirklees Priory was a Cistercian nunnery, the remains of which are in the Kirklees Park Estate near Brighouse.

The park is one of the sites throughout the UK which is said to be the resting place of Robin Hood. He was traditionally said to have been bled to death by the Kirklees Priory prioress.

Miller and Carter iis owned by Mitchells and Butlers who purchased the Three Nuns as part of the acquisition of 173 Orchid Group sites in 2014.