Harry Ramsden’s is set to return to Yorkshire with the creation of 50 new outlets and 500 jobs.

The iconic brand – the country’s longest-established restaurant chain – began in Guiseley in 1928 when Harry Ramsden started serving from a small striped wooden hut beside a tram stop.

Within three years, he had opened a sit-down fish and chip ‘palace’ on the same site – with oak paneling and chandeliers modelled on those of London’s Ritz Hotel.

But in 2011, it was announced that the the Guiseley restaurant was to close – leaving Yorkshire without its own branch of the world famous chain. The tradition of fish and chips being served on the site continued when The Wetherby Whaler stepped in to save the restaurant with a £500,000 refurbishment.

Now the Harry Ramsden’s brand is set to return to its roots with the planned opening of 50 new outlets across the county by 2018.

The company has granted its Yorkshire franchise to Vikesh and Dimple Patel, of JVP Ventures, who are now looking at sites in Bradford, Leeds and York, with the first opening planned for 2014.

Joe Teixeira, CEO of Harry Ramsden’s said: “It has always been a dearly held ambition to bring the Harry Ramsden’s name back to Yorkshire, so I am delighted that the first franchise to be awarded fulfils that desire.”