When the Vale of Mowbray was first established as a brewery in 1795, King George III was on the throne and a series of food riots known as the 'revolt of the housewives' were in full swing across England.
Fast forward 227 years and the country again finds itself in the grip of an economic crisis and soaring food prices.
And although this hasn't yet led to civil unrest, it has sadly proven to be the final straw for the Vale of Mowbray.
The business, based in Leeming Bar near Northallerton, switched to manufacturing pork pies in 1928 and aimed to produce 80million pies per year as it proudly branded itself 'the UK's number one pork pie brand'.
Read more: Vale of Mowbray: The quick demise that even a nation of pork pie lovers couldn't stop
It managed to weather the Covid-19 storm and just last year launched a recruitment drive for 65 new staff members due to its growth in the sector.
But now it has been announced that the family-run business, which employed 219 people, has gone into administration, ending more than two centruries of trading.
The administrators said the business has experienced 'significant financial challenges' in recent years due to rising raw material input prices, increasing energy costs and sector-wide recruitment challenges.
And despite attempts to attract fresh investment into the firm, officials said there has been no viable offers and there were not enough resources to continue trading.
This left bosses with no choice but to close Vale of Mowbray, with 171 roles made immediately redundant.
This has left the local community in shock, with sympathy being expressed for all those who have lost their jobs in the midst of a cost of living crisis and with Christmas less than 12-weeks away.
Emily Hadlow, manager of the Simply Dutch homeware shop which is virtually opposite the Vale of Mowbray factory said she was shocked and saddened at the news of it going into administration.
She said the shop's cafe received weekly deliveries from the firm and she spoke of the positive relationship the store had with Vale of Mowbray - even extending to the homeware shop lending them a giant resin pig once for a staff event.
Emily said: “Our cafe gets deliveries from them every week, we were very surprised because we hadn’t heard anything about it up until now.
"It is really sad, it seems to have come out of the blue.
"There are a lot of workers who come here for their lunch so it is really sad.
“There was no indication this was going to happen from their staff.
"There was no indication from anyone that something was wrong.
"It is really sad because there are generations of people in this village that have worked there.”
Emily added: “They said they will still deliver to us tomorrow but that will be the last delivery we will get from them forever and we will not be getting the range of stock tomorrow that we normally would.
"Chris our cafe manager has been ringing round this morning and we will be picking up the pieces from other suppliers but they (Vale of Mowbray) were quite good on price so we will probably be paying more.”
Chris Whitehead, manager of the cafe at Simply Dutch, said the news was a particular shock because she understood that the firm had recently invested millions into expanding into producing scotch eggs.
She said: “It’s sad, I knew a few people who work there and obviously it has been there for a lot of years.
"Some of the workers do come in here and I’ve known the delivery driver for many years working all over the dale.
"I’m shocked, it has just come out of the blue. I got wind of it yesterday and just thought it was rumours.”
Chris said that the firm going bust was a sad reflection on the catering industry as a whole during the current cost of living crisis.
She said: “I don’t know what the situation is there but I hope somebody puts another business in there or buys them out or whatever.
“The catering industry itself is having a hard time, you’ve only got to look at the amount of pubs closing and see those that are going back to old fashioned opening hours of 11am to 2pm but there aren’t many wet pubs left as they all switched to food.
"But the catering industry is hard to be in at the moment with the rising costs, because we have all the overheads but have to justify whether you can charge someone £5 for a bacon sandwich.”
The demise of any business is sad news for all involved, with staff only being told yesterday that they were losing their jobs.
But it hits even harder when such a long-establised family firm is brought to its knees.
And although the Vale of Mowbray's website still proudly proclaims today that the firm has 'got tons of heritage and a big helping of Yorkshire pride', sadly neither have been enough to save it from collapse.
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