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District Pub of the Year 2017
The Anglers Rest
The Anglers Rest in Bamford is a special place. In October 2013 after a long, hard fought campaign, it was purchased collectively by over 300 people and became the first community owned pub in the High Peak.
In late 2012, The Bamford Community Society, a community benefit society, was formed in order to purchase the pub, after it was threatened with closure. The community society had an overwhelming response, working together to save the Anglers. Asset of Community Value (ACV) status was obtained with High Peak Borough Council (HPBC) in May 2013. This provided a clear breathing space while business plans were formulated.
Since re-opening, local volunteers have renovated and improve the facilities. The pub has thrived. It is now a viable and sustainable business – the pub, the post office and café are all under the one roof with a large village car park adjacent. Under the management of a professional team, it provides a warm welcome to local people and visitors alike.
There is a full events programme including a weekly quiz and monthly folk sessions and vinyl club. The Anglers also has an outdoor tool station for emergency repairs and cycle racks.
The pub has a wide selection of real ales from the local area and beyond. Local brewery, Intrepid, regularly feature, as well as Black Sheep and ales from Kelham Island and Abbeydale. It was awarded April 2015 ‘Pub of the Month’ by ‘Sheffield and District’ CAMRA and is now adding the prestigious ‘District Pub of the Year Award.’
The Anglers is a perfect example of the positive effect which Asset of Community value (ACV) status can have. Without the speedy obtaining of the protection this afforded, it is unlikely that the Anglers would have survived, leaving Bamford as yet another village with no pub.
This award will be presented on the afternoon of Saturday 20th.May – all welcome!
Dave Pickersgill, April 2017
rest of the top 5 Derbyshire pubs:
2) Red Lion (Litton)
3) Three Stags Head (Wardlow Mires)
4) Cheshire Cheese (Hope)
5) Grouse (Longshaw)
Next was a midweek trip to Mexborough to brew at Imperial, so as the brew coincided with Theresa Mayhem signing the Article 50 Economic Suicide Note the guys decided to brew a Euro IPA. ‘Ready… Aim… Fire!’ is 6.3%, pale, and features hop varieties Mandarina Bavaria and Huell Melon.
Next weekend it was down to Raw, as Dave and David realised that despite regularly collaborating it had been years since they’d brewed the sort of hoppy pale beers both are known for. ‘Raw Steel III – Transatlantic’ is a 6.2% IPA featuring a British hop so new it has no name yet! Well, it has a name, but not one we can tell you just yet… Also featured are Chinook (UK) and Jester (UK), and mandarins, just because.
Sheffield Beer Week was very productive with no fewer than six venues purveying Steel City beer, as well as Dave blagging future collabs at Yellowbelly in Wexford and Weird Beard in That London. 
Here’s a little story for you: last November, we had a mobile bottling company travel from the highland reaches of Scotland, fully loaded with a bottling rig on the back of an articulated lorry, to package three of our beers, one of which should have been our award winning Sheffield Porter.
The only problem was the combination of our relatively new brewer’s obsession with a London ESB yeast strain and lack of technical data on said yeast meant our award winning Sheffield Porter came in at a sessionable 3.5% ABV, instead of the 4.4% Porter everyone has come to know and love.
The labels were already printed, but the beer – which tasted lovely and true to character – was the wrong finishing gravity. No matter what we did to rouse the yeast (including recirculating it, warming it up, and playing it Arctic Monkeys on repeat for days on end… okay, I made that last one up!), the gravity would not budge; we were going to have to bottle this beer under a new name. Bugger!
For those unaware, The Sheffield Brewery Company resides in an original Victorian factory, now up-cycled into a brewery, renown for making polishes. Whilst stood by a table displaying the original tins used during our brewery tours, desperately seeking a name, we randomly noticed two little words that just rolled off the tongue: Brunswick Black. Of course! It seemed so obvious; what a great name for a beer. So much so, it inspired Nigel Williams (board member and ex-landlord of the Ranmoor Inn) to sporadically say, ‘Finely Polished Beers’.
And so, not only was a new beer born, which is available in bottle shops, restaurants, delis and farm shops in and around Sheffield. A new brand was born.
Why do we tell you all this? Because behind our beers and brewery is a great story; a story worth telling. So we have decided it’s time to tell the story – not only ours, but of all Sheffield, past, present and future – by rebranding our core range.
If you’ve ever visited The Sheffield Brewery Company on a tour, purchasing and collecting beer up from our off-licensed brewery, or when we’re open monthly to coincide with Peddler Night Market, you may have noticed some of the classic posters from Sheffield brands, Whitbread and Wards, among others. Along with the polishes and typography of the era, these iconic posters have inspired our new designs.
Not only did we want to capture all things Sheffield and draw upon our building heritage with the polish names, but we wanted to create something that looked both contemporary and classic at the same time.
Along with all this, we have relaunched our website, www.sheffieldbrewery.com, and released our now seasonal special, the truly hoptastic Get Thi’Sen Outdooerz, available throughout the spring and summer months, in both cask and unfined, naturally hazy, craft keg.
Exciting times for The Sheffield Brewery Company. When in Sheffield, drink Sheffield beer! 
Following the national presentation at the Scottish Stores, there will be a presentation event at the Ship on Wednesday 31st.May at 16:00 – all welcome! – our Pub Heritage officer will forward the certificate he collected, in London, on behalf of Sheffield, to its rightful owners, the Ship.
Dave Pickersgill