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Friars Story

25/08/2020
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Our Story Since 1927 | Friars Luxury Chocolate

Many of our online customers may not have had the luxury of being able to visit one of our brick and mortar stores, a true haven for chocolate and sweet lovers around the world! Based in the Lake District tourist towns of Keswick and Ambleside, Ye Olde Friars has served both local people and tourists alike with luxury chocolates since 1927, providing people with the chance to escape the real world with little bitesize moments, in the form of locally crafted chocolates. Of course, our expansion into the online world... Read More

20/01/2019
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Our New Crazy Windows

Our Keswick store with its fabulous large windows is an excellent playground for new ideas! From whole fridges to a herd of sheep we have had some unusual ideas in the past! With all the snow and reindeer’s tidied away from our Christmas windows, we have gone a little crazy this time with our rain and contrasting tropical themes. With hanging foliage and tropical plants this window certainly stands out in the centre of a Lake District town. Even unicorns and dinosaurs make an appearance. Admittedly this is a stretch... Read More

14/01/2018

What’s New For 2018?

We had a fantastic 2017 here at Friars. After a busy Easter we invested heavily designing our new look website. This was followed by our first Christmas at our new online warehouse, which saw record Christmas sales. Our two stores in Keswick and Ambleside continued to be packed with shoppers looking for ‘something different’. All in all we have had a great year, with the business going from strength to strength and we are forever grateful to our fabulous customers. What’s new for 2018 you ask. Currently our new gin,... Read More

08/10/2017
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It’s Chocolate Week And Our 90th Birthday!

It’s chocolate week! For those who don’t know this is an annual celebration of all things chocolate held this year from 9th – 15th October. This year is extra special as it coincides with our 90th birthday. Our family business has had a varied history; from the closing of the cafe, to doubling in size, opening a store in Ambleside and starting an online business. To celebrate we thought would give our customers a taste of our history. So during chocolate week any order placed over the value of £15... Read More

09/08/2017

Friars Teams Up With Reviews.co.uk

We have recently started working with reviews.co.uk, an independent reviews company. They contact customers on our behalf regarding their shopping experience and gather product reviews. All reviews are completely independent so what you see is what you get. We can’t edit or remove reviews so it really is a true reflection on what we offer here at Friars. Here are some of our most recent reviews, we are pretty happy with them! Here are some of our most recent reviews (sometimes it’s good to blow your own trumpet!).

30/07/2017

We Have Moved!

After 6 years we have now out grown our current address and have moved our online business to a new warehouse. We have moved into what used to be the ‘cars of the stars’ motor museum situated in the picturesque town of Keswick. So we are not going far! Plus it gives us a lot more room, which we are very excited about!   The Batmobile and Trotter Independent Trading Co. car have been replaced by chocolate games controllers and gin truffles! There is however one relic from its museum... Read More

27/06/2017

Our Corporate Gifts Service

Friars has a wealth of experience catering for all kinds of clients from multinational corporations to small hotels. We take pride in offering a highly flexible, professional service and will endeavour to offer solutions to meet all your business needs. We get all kinds of weird and wonderful request from a gin and lemon chocolate (which we now sell) to an energy drink flavoured sweet. All enquiries are handled by a designated corporate manager to ensure a high quality of service. Nothing is impossible, whether it’s a new chocolate flavour,... Read More

13/05/2017

Celebrating Our 90th Birthday

Ye Olde Friars has now been trading for 90 years! Founded in 1927 by William Long as ‘The Gift House’ gift shop it soon change its name (1929) to the more recognisable ‘Ye Olde Friars’. It has adapted over the years from a café come chocolate shop to a specialist luxury chocolate shop. The business has been in the Webster family since day one and currently has four family members working in the business. One of the most significant changes came in the late 80’s to early 90s when Gina... Read More

27/04/2017

Our Fabulous Summer Windows

We have gone for a teddy bears picnic theme with a picnic basket, cup and saucers and plenty of flowers.   To complement the picnic window we have an outdoor garden theme with table, chairs and washing line (with sweets pegged on…..of course). With falling ladybirds and daisies.

26/02/2017

New Website Coming Soon

We are in the process of re-designing our website so we decided to have a chat with Jackie Woodier our head of online to find out what the plans are. Why are you updating the website? One of the main reasons is our current website isn’t responsive which we feel is something that will really improve the customer experience. Responsive means that it will automatically change shape to suit all devices from an iPad to a mobile, so users won’t have to scroll sideways. Any new features? We are planning... Read More