Sheffield Beer Week saw the wooden pin make another appearance at Hop Hideout in Leah’s Yard, Sheffield City Centre, providing a cask ale option. This time the beer from the wood was Abbeydale Moonshine.
By the time this issue of Beer Matters hits the street, the Mount Pleasant in Norton Lees should have reopened under new management.
The Clubhouse on London Road has announced they aren’t renewing the lease and it is likely to be closing in March. In an announcement they stated it was a heartbreaking decision but times are tough and all the bills are getting extortionate and they simply can’t do it anymore. The Steel City derby match unusually wasn’t screened there as the direct debit to Sky Sports had already been cancelled ahead of them closing – it was costing them £3,000 a month!
Two of the Dronfield town centre pubs taking part in the One Valley Festival on 7 June have announced their plans. The Manor House Hotel are doing pretty much the same as last year with the car park closed off and filled with two outside bars – one of which will feature cask ale from Abbeydale Brewery along with Pellizco’s mexican food trailer. Live music will be provided by The Britpop Rockers at 4pm and 6pm then DJ Brad Gee will keep the party going from 7:30pm until late. Meanwhile down the road at the Green Dragon are also keeping a similarly tried and tested formula with the car park closed off and live music on the back of a wagon, DJ Higz playing the tunes between and after the bands and a fish & trip trailer to keep everyone fed. There will also be two outside bars supplementing the normal pub bar with real ales, shots and bottles available outside.
The Cross Scythes in Totley has now reopened under its new management following refurbishment and is offering “elevated pub dining”.
The Chapeltown Tap is hosting a Triple Point Brewing tap takeover and meet the brewer event on 30 April. Tickets (£15) need to be booked in advance and include a third pint taster of 6 different beers and nibbles from a ploughmans food tray.
Pub blogger “Micropub Adventures” has launched a promotion for visiting beer venues between Sheffield and Retford by train. In Retford this includes the Idle Valley Tap, Brew Shed and Beer Under the Clock then of course on Worksop station is the Mallard, which hosts regular beer festivals. A short walk from Shireoaks railway station is the Ticking Clock Brewery’s tap room which opens at weekends then close to Kiveton Bridge station is the Kiveton Tap. The next offering towards Sheffield is the Oxbow at Woodhouse Mill before finishing at the Sheffield Tap. For the leg between Kiveton and Sheffield the X5 bus offers a more convenient alternative to the train, stopping close to the Oxbow!
Thanks to John Clarke of Stockport CAMRA (editor of Opening Times magazine), who posted some scans of an old real ale booklet from 1975 on X, we can look back at pubs serving real ale in Sheffield City Centre that year. There were 11 pubs listed and of those 6 still survive – Dog & Partridge, Globe, Grapes, Norfolk Arms, Red Deer and Washington. Back then all those pubs could be split into two camps – those serving Tetleys Bitter and those serving Stones. Two of the pubs are now part of Stonegate’s “Craft Union” chain with no cask ale but the rest still serve the real deal! The lost pubs are Peacock Inn (Fitzwillam Street), Old Red Lion (Holly Street), Red House (Solly Street), Royal Oak (Hollis Croft) and Sportsman Inn (Cambridge Street). Of course whilst we have lost those 5 pubs over the years, we certainly now have a much bigger choice of real ale and craft beer venues around the City Centre than we did then!