Your editor recently spent a day volunteering behind the bar at the brand new Swinton (near Rotherham) beer festival, held at St Margaret’s Anglo-Catholic church to help them raise funds for a new community hall. The beer festival was run alongside the annual town fair which is held in a field attached to the church with a variety of stalls along with a kiddies ride, ice cream van and a couple of hot food traders.
Inside the church the ladies who run the regular coffee morning there were assembled serving coffee, pop and crisps from the kitchen area as well as manning a stall selling home made cakes.
At the front of the church there was an all day live entertainment programme with a number of different singers, dancers and bands of different genres helping to maintain a great atmosphere!
Down one side of the church was a huge bar with lots of real ales on handpump, this was flanked at one end by a bar serving wine and spirits and the other end by a bar serving craft beer and lager on keg via a tap wall, borrowed from Maison du Biere of Elsecar.
The cask range was all sourced from Yorkshire and included beer from Woodlands brewery of Penistone which isn’t often seen out and about, also a couple of rare cask ales from Emmanuales of Sheffield. Nailmaker brewery had supplied a festival special – “Ale Mary” which was a regular pale ale infused with Juniper berries, this was one of the first to sell out!
The beer festival was kept busy by a wonderful mix of people – families popping in for refreshment after visiting the fair, priests and staff from this and other nearby churches relaxing with a beer knowing they were supporting the fundraiser and beery folk who had made the effort to visit having seen the beer list!
The venue was easy enough to get to – 20 minutes on the local train from Sheffield to Swinton station from where you can either walk or do as I did jump on a bus for the short ride up to the church! On the way back I got a bus from outside the church to Rotherham Interchange and connected with the Tram Train to Sheffield Cathedral, from where I walked up to the Dog & Partridge for a pint and a chat to another customer about how the England match had gone whilst I’d been busy chucking beer at people (we won on penalties).
All in all, a great little do and worth a visit next year should it happen again!
- Check out our beer festival listings for other upcoming events in or near Sheffield