Andy has been actively involved in CAMRA since the early 2000s after being recruited to sit on a National Younger Members Task Group.
Since then he has held roles on the branch committee including Secretary, Membership Secretary, Magazine Editor, Chair and now Social Secretary.
Andy has also been involved with the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival almost every year since becoming active in the branch.
From 25 to 27 July Hillsborough Park is host to Tramlines festival, a popular ticketed event with several stages of live music, comedy and more including some big names for ticket holders to enjoy.
Meanwhile in Sheffield City Centre on Devonshire Green is the centrepiece of the Tramlines fringe – a main stage in use on the Saturday and Sunday with acts curated by Papa Al who will be bringing a mix of artists including local and emerging talent, community groups, energetic ska bands and a headline set from “a huge social media star”. The Saturday headline band is Jungle Lion, who return with their full ska orchestra whilst Sunday will see Macka B and the Roots Ragga Band.
Alongside the main stage up to 40 different local venues are taking part in the fringe putting on entertainment over the weekend with much of it free of charge. Among the list are a number of pubs that serve real ale to enjoy with the live music such as the Washington, Frog & Parrot, Church House, Shakespeares Ale & Cider House and Harlequin.
Thornbridge Brewery’s tap room hosted a bit of a do on Saturday 7 June – the 20th birthday for Jaipur IPA! On 7 June 2005 in the former carpenters workshop in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall gathered Stefano Cossi, Martin Dickie and Roy Shorrock to brew a 5.9% ABV IPA that was to become Jaipur. 20 years later the brewery is now on an industrial estate in Bakewell but Jaipur is still being brewed – in much larger volumes!
Also celebrating a 20th anniversary this year is Bradfield Brewery. Their current seasonal beers are Farmers Cherry Beer and Farmers Nettle Nectar.
Peak Ales is 20 too, they marked the occasion on 14 June with an event at the brewery where 10 of their cask ales along with their newly launched Pilsner was available plus food, music and classic cars!
Beating the above in age is Acorn Brewery of Wombwell in Barnsley, they celebrate 22 years this year and a special beer “Two Little Ducks” has been brewed. It is a pale session ale at just 3.4% ABV.
Fuggle Bunny Brew House continue through the summer with their additional tap sessions on the last Saturday of the month. On 28 June they are open 3pm to 9pm and as well as the brewery bar they will have Nico’s pizzas trading there and live music at 5pm.
Also on 28 June is an open day at Eyam Brewery in Great Hucklow with a range of their beers available to drink on site and Sunshine Pizza Oven providing food. If the weather is good all that should also be accompanied by beautiful Peak District scenery too! You can get there easily by bus – Stagecoach route 65 (Sheffield to Buxton via Tideswell) and Andrews route 173 (Bakewell to Castleton) stop in the village near the brewery.
Chantry Brewery have released a new beer called “Bailey Bridge”. It has been brewed in honour of Sir Donald Coleman Bailey OBE, Rotherham’s own engineering mastermind who invented the Bailey Bridge, a modular marvel that helped change the course of World War II. The beer is an easy drinking pale ale and local MP John Healey visited the brewery in Parkgate to pull the first pint at their tap bar.
Drone Valley Brewery open their tap tent, staffed by volunteers, every weekend. Additionally they have announced some brewery tour event dates to book on Sundays 3 August and 2 November with a midday start. Tickets are £15 and include the tour & talk, samples and nibbles. They also have a number of live music events planned at the tap, including a mini music festival on 7 September, tickets for that are £10. The brewery is in Unstone on the main road between Dronfield and Chesterfield, buses 43 and 44 stop at the end of the drive.
Intrepid have brewed “Solskin”, a 4.9% ABV rustic white ale and available in cask, keg and bottle formats. It is described as having Belgian farmhouse vibes. It is brewed with torrified wheat, Cascade & Hallertau Blanc hops and a new yeast strain plus the addition of coriander seed and orange zest along with a foraged tea mix. This beer is brewed annually with first pours at Solskin Festival, a Pagan & Heathen celebration held in the Grindleford area over the last weekend in June.
The Wharncliffe Arms at Wharncliffe Side reopened on 23rd May 2025 after closure for almost two years. Extensively renovated by the owners, Bradfield Brewery, with wood half-panelling and leather covered seating: both armchairs and wall-mounted. The one L-shaped room is sensitively split by the use of panelling. Outside drinking areas at both front and rear, with the rear sloping over a grassed area to the River Don.
At the Devonshire Arms in Dore Cath & David are celebrating 10 years there on Sunday 15 June from 3pm.
The Brothers Arms in Heeley is hosting “One Mole for the Road” on Saturday 5 July, this is an annual music festival celebrating a legend – Adrian “Mole” Price. The afternoon starts with DJ Tink from 2pm with bands on from 3pm – The Yons, SPG, Rockett 88 and Kingfisher Blue.
June saw Craftworks in Mosborough celebrate their 4th anniversary. This is a micropub that is open all day catering for all moods – you can enjoy a coffee and cake in the morning, quiet pint in the afternoon or a more lively evening with quiz nights, live acoustic music performances, comedy and more taking place from time to time. A range of real ales and other craft beers are available here. Another small venue celebrating 4 years is the Bear on Abbeydale Road who marked the occasion with a birthday weekend from 20 to 22 June featuring a special one off beer, music and pop up food traders. On a normal day this is basically a specialist beer shop with a number of craft beer keg taps offering the option to drink in as well as taking cans and bottles home.
The Bulls Head in Ranmoor has reopened under new management, who previously ran the Rivelin Hotel. Food is available including classic pub dishes, burgers, steaks and pasta plus of course Sunday roasts.
The Castle in Hillsborough is expected to reopen on 4 July following new management taking on the lease. It is owned by the Stonegate pub company.
The Sheffield Half Pint Marathon initiative is taking place again this year during September. This sees a special charity beer brewed that is on sale across 13 venues including True North’s pubs and others and the idea is you visit all 13 venues and have a half of the special beer at each one, raising money for charity and potentially winning a prize for doing so!
Dog & Partridge food menu
The Dog & Partridge in Sheffield City Centre now has its kitchen open again with a menu of Irish snacks including the Dublin Spice Bags!
The Church House in Sheffield City Centre (near Cathedral tram stop), has started doing food again with a weekly special served Thursdays 4pm to 8pm and Friday to Sunday midday to 8:30pm. At the weekend if you are going there to see the band at night you can now get down there earlier, bag a table and have a bite to eat first!
The Red Lion in Litton took part in Wakes Week celebrations and on Saturday 21 June they not only hosted a weekend beer festival but was also a venue for the steam engine rally.
The Calver Arms is hosting an evening with retired footballer Bruce Grobbelaar on 4 September for £60 per person. This includes a two course meal and welcome drink and there will also be a memorabilia raffle and auction.
The courtyard drinking area at the George in Tideswell, on a rainy day!
The George Inn at Tideswell is now open again under the new management of Sarah as part of Rick Ellison’s Atlantik Inns group. The pub is leased from Greene King brewery and has 3 real ales on the bar, a games room with darts and pool table and a smart courtyard drinking area outside. At some point soon the kitchen is to be opened and the pub has a lounge shaped in a way that naturally lends itself to having a separate dining area. Longer term projects potentially include reopening the hotel rooms and function room upstairs and renovating the other buildings around the courtyard that come with the pub but need work to be brought back into use.
On Saturday 31 May we are asking all our members that are visiting pubs in Sheffield that day to record the choice of cask ales available and where possible the price of a pint. This data is an incredibly useful snapshot of the state of the real ale scene in the city – as well as continuing to prove that Sheffield is the beer capital of Britain (in terms of how many different beers are available to choose from) we can track year on year variations in beer choice, prices and commonly available brands. You can enter your data using our dedicated website –https://track.beer/survey/.
We have organised a number of survey pub crawls on the day to make more of a social occasion of it, meet the leader in the first pub:
Woodseats & Heeley – led by Malcolm DIxon (rambale@sheffield.camra.org.uk): Meet outside Guzzle Micropub at 12:30 (get there on buses 24, 25, 42, 43, 44, 75, 76, M76 or X17)
Bradway, Totley, Millhouses and Nether Edge – led by Andy Cullen (beermatters@sheffield.camra.org.uk): Meet at the Castle Inn at 12:25 (get there on bus M17)
Beighton, Woodhouse Mill and Handsworth – led by Paul Manning (chair@sheffield.camra.org.uk): Meet at the Scarsdale Hundred (Wetherspoons) at 11:00 (get there on bus 7 or 26, alternatively the Blue route tram to Beighton).
Walkley, Crookes and Commonside – led by Paul Crofts (treasurer@sheffield.camra.org.uK): Meet at the Walkley Cottage Inn at 12:00 (get there on bus 52 or 95).
Fulwood and Broomhill – led by John Beardshaw and Phil Ellett (secretary@sheffield.camra.org.uk): Meet at the Rising Sun at 12:00 (get there on bus 83 or 120).
Hillsborough, Bradfield, Stannington and Malin Bridge – led by Dave Pickersgill (pubheritage@sheffield.camra.org.uk): Meet at the Rawson Spring (Wetherspoons) at 11:30 or on the 61 bus to High Bradfield at 11:55.
Hillsborough area – led by Kevin Thompson (social@sheffield.camra.org.uk): Meet at the Park at 12:00. (Get there by Yellow route tram to the Leppings Lane stop; alternatively by bus 18, 31 or 57)
Kelham Island & Neepsend – led by Dan Rowe (contact 07989 943776): Meet at the Gardeners Rest at 12:00. (Get there on bus 7 or 8).
In most cases buying an all day travel pass such as the Citywide ticket may prove worthwhile – see sytravelmaster.com or the Travelmaster app for details.
We are pleased to announce this years festival is taking place at Kelham Island Museum from 15 to 18 October.
It will offer a range of around 200 cask ales spread across three bars plus a list of around 50 other craft beers rotating on the taps in our keg bar. Our traditional cider & perry bar will offer a choice of around 30 plus hopefully some locally produced mead too. New this year you will be able to use card payment (including Apple/Google contactless) to pay for drinks at the bars as you go. Alternatively we will still be doing bar tokens which you can buy using cash or card.
As usual we’ll have a range of street food traders to satisfy your hunger plus the old skool pub games in the marquee and the tombola upstairs to keep you amused (and there are prizes to be won!).
On the Wednesday we’ll be judging the champion beer of Sheffield & District with all the local brewers based in the City and our part of the Peak District invited to enter a cask ale, we’ll announce the winner early on in the evening. On Thursday evening our friends from Bradfield Brewery will be hosting a tutored tasting event (advance booking required) whilst for those interested in local history our pub heritage officer Dave Pickersgill and local historian John Stocks will be hosting some talks and tours themed on the “Little Chicago” booklet on Thursday and Friday. Again advance booking is required.
From Thursday onwards we have a programme of live music planned – Thursday evening is Mari Wild and the Reprobates, Friday evening is Soul Battalion then Saturday afternoon we have Loxley Silver Band, Kelham Island Rapper (dancers) and Blyth Power.
With the bars taking card payments we are no longer bundling bar tokens in with the admission – the entry fee is £5 on Thursday and £7 on Friday and Saturday with free admission offered on Wednesday. You’ll also need to get a festival glass for £3, you can keep this as a souvenir or return it for a refund when you leave.There will be a printed programme available containing the beer and cider list for £1 or you can find all the details online at sheffield.camra.org.uk/sc.
The charity collection this year will be for the Sheffield Childrens’ Hospital Charity. You can chuck cash donations and unspent bar tokens in the buckets to help this worthy cause.
The festival opening hours is Wednesday 5pm to 10:30pm, Thursday/Friday 11:30am to 10:30pm and Saturday 11am to 9pm. Nearest tram stop is Shalesmoor or there are bus stops on Nursery Street and Gibraltar Street. It is also walkable from the City Centre and the Kelham Island district has some fantastic pubs forming a buzzing unofficial festival fringe!
TALKS AND TOURS – SCAN THE QR CODE TO BOOK…
Bradfield Brewery tutored tasting (ticket is for tasting event only, festival admission is also payable on the day)Little Chicago Guided Walk (ticket includes the walking tour, a copy of the booklet and entry to the festival)Little Chicago talk (ticket reserves you a place in the audience and includes a copy of the walk booklet, festival admission is also payable separately on the day)
When Thornbridge first commissioned the Burton Union set they’d saved after Carlsberg announced they were no longer using them at their Marstons brewery the first beer they put through was a special batch of Jaipur IPA, their flagship brand. Since then a series of special one off beers have been produced, providing an interesting demonstration on how this traditional production method can affect the taste and aroma of different styles of beer. The recent news is a second batch of Jaipur Union has now been brewed, so if you want to try tasting the difference, this is another opportunity!
Neepsend brewery, having just celebrated their 10th anniversary, have hit another milestone with their 1,100th beer brewed!
They are also celebrating a win in the Champion beer competition at Barrow Hill Rail Ale Festival.
Ashover brewery, of Clay Cross (Chesterfield), is under new ownership and back in business as Ashover Brew Co. They are running a crowdfunder to help invest in improvements such as a canning line. The range being brewed for the relaunch is Font (3.8% Chinook hopped session pale), Poets’ Tipple (4% best bitter), Littlemoor Citra (4.1% Citra hopped pale ale), Rainbows End (4.5% american hopped pale ale), Coffin Lane Stout (5%, brewed with chocolate malt), Zoo (5.5% Mosaic and Citra hopped pale ale) and Butts Pale Ale (american hopped, 5.5%). The official launch event is scheduled to take place at the Tupton Tap on 4 July with their full range of beers, outside bar, food truck and live music.
Ilkley Brewery has been bought out of administration and saved by Ilkley based businessman Graham Smith, who is also a director of Roosters brewery.
Intrepid Brewery in Brough, near Bradwell, hosted their first open day of the year on Saturday 24 May, which also coincided with the usual bank holiday beer festival at the Old Hall Hotel in Hope, which isn’t far away! The open days involve a bar open in the brewery, an outdoor drinking area and Sunshine Pizza trading outside. Buses 173 (Bakewell to Castleton) and some journeys on 272 (Sheffield to Castleton) pass the end of their drive.
Eyam Brewery in Great Hucklow are also hosting a number of open days this year after their successful introduction last year, the first is planned for Saturday 28 June and again will involve a pop up bar with a range of their beer in the brewery, seating inside and out and Sunshine Pizza trading outside. Bus 65 (Sheffield to Buxton via Tideswell) and 173 (Bakewell to Castleton) stops in the village a couple of minutes walk from the brewery.
Fuggle Bunny Brew House run a weekly “Fuggle Friday” tap session all year round, however as we approach summer they add a monthly Saturday tap event on the last Saturday of each month. The 31 May event has live music with James Scanlan at 5pm and Nico’s Pizza will be trading outside. The bar will be open 3pm to 9pm. The brewery is about 10 minutes walk from Halfway tram terminus (Blue route) or various local buses such as the 120k pass close by.
Fuggle Bunny have released a new beer too, which made an appearance at Barrow Hill Rail Ale Festival – a 6% ABV pineapple IPA.
Bradfield’s 20th anniversary beers now available include Farmers XX Best (a traditional best bitter, 4.6% ABV and amber, brewed with Maris Otter amber and chocolate malts) and Farmers Celebration Pale (a straw coloured oat pale ale brewed with new world hops, 4.2% ABV).
Little Mesters brewing have relocated from Meadowhead to Attercliffe, with the unit at Meadowhead next to Mitchells Wine Merchants to become a cigar shop and tasting room for Mitchells. We understand the brewing kit installed at Attercliffe was acquired from the closed Lost Industry brewery with the kit that was at Meadowhead no longer in use. The Little Mesters Tap bar remains in Woodseats.
Loxley Brewery beer to drink at home is now available from all their pubs with the Raven selling the bottles and No3 Sharrow offering take away containers for cask ale. They will also be hosting a merchandise stand during the beer festival at their Wisewood Inn 20 to 22 June.
It seems a growing number of people are getting diagnosed with health conditions that require them to cut gluten from their diet, although that may just be that myself and other people I know are getting older and more decrepit of course! Either way it had always been game over for the beer lover as most beer is brewed with malted barley which provides the sugar to turn to alcohol as well as influencing the colour and flavour of many beers.
That’s not to say there wasn’t any gluten free options available – a handful of some more traditional ale breweries had experimented with alternative ingredients but it is safe to say they weren’t the same!
The good news is that now an increasing choice of beers are available thanks to the availability of a proline specific oligopeptidase enzyme that brewers can add to the beer to reduce the gluten content to below the 20ppm threshold required to label a product as gluten free and is tolerable to those sensitive to Gluten.
Locally all the beers produced by Abbeydale Brewery and Triple Point brewery are treated this way and can be considered Gluten Free so the many pubs in our area with Moonshine on cask now cater for drinkers with a Gluten free requirement! Chantry brewery’s Full Moon pale ale is gluten free, some of Bradfield’s bottled beers are too whilst Thornbridge’s gluten free options are AM:PM session IPA, Lukas lager and Bayern Pilsner.
A growing number of breweries across the UK are now joining the list that offer Gluten Free options and looking back at our Steel City Beer & Cider festival held at Kelham Island museum last October we offered a range of 19 cask ales and 13 keg beers that were Gluten Free and this is choice many beer festivals now seek to offer.
Some pubs also make the effort to keep their Coeliac regulars interested too, for example at the Kelham Island Tavern one of the regularly changing guest ale lines is dedicated to Gluten Free beer whilst the Dog & Partridge has a handpump that usually has the current Abbeydale seasonal special on it which of course is gluten free. It also of course goes without saying that Abbeydale’s own pub, the Rising Sun in Nether Green along with the bar at Triple Point Brewing are a good destination for drinking gluten free beer!
There are some pubs that don’t have a dedicated gluten free line but do regularly stock something suitable, examples here include the Head of Steam in Sheffield City Centre and the Beekeeper in Hillsborough. It is also worth noting that some local music venues such as the Leadmill have beer from Triple Point or Abbeydale either on keg or in can.
So if you have Gluten free dietary requirements and enjoy good beer, do seek out the beers and support the brewers and pubs that are making the effort!
One Valley Festival sees a number of different pubs, a club and a brewery tap all host events on the same day so you can explore Dronfield town and surrounding countryside experiencing a variety of beer, music and food. The town centre venues are all walkable from Dronfield railway station whilst all venues are on a bus route (one of 15, 16, 43 or 44). The date this year is Saturday 7 June.
The rural pub that takes part is the Miners Arms in Hundall. This sees a stage appear in the beer garden with live music through the afternoon and the outside bar open with an extended range of ales and cider plus a burger stall. Hundall is a hillside location with the pub offering a view over the valley as well as the neighbouring cricket pitch! Bus 15 (Dronfield-Chesterfield) stops outside the pub until about 6pm.
Down in the valley at Unstone is Drone Valley Brewery who have a tap staffed by volunteers (most of the profits go to local good causes) and they rather push the boat out for One Valley day. Various tents appear in the yard to supplement the bar in the brewery with seating areas, music stage, cocktail bar and food vendor (Gow’s Kitchen). Buses 43 and 44 (Sheffield-Chesterfield) stop on the main road at the end of their drive.
In the suburb of Dronfield Woodhouse are two pubs, the Jolly Farmer (on bus route 43) and Miners Arms (on bus route 16). At the Jolly Farmer festivities take place around the outdoor drinking area with outside bar, BBQ and live entertainment. They also serve breakfasts in the morning (booking recommended) Meanwhile up the road at the Miners live entertainment is planned in the evening with an acoustic set by Ethan Massingham. During the afternoon you can chill out with a beer in their garden and maybe grab a bite to eat!
Dronfield town centre is split into two areas – The High Street and Dronny Bottom and each have a cluster of venues. The Civic Centre is the bus terminus for rural bus routes 15 and 16 whilst bus 43 stops outside Sainsburys, these are all close to the High Street. Meanwhile Dronny Bottom is where the railway station is, with bus routes 15 and 44 passing through too.
There are Three venues along High Street and Church Street – Blue Stoops, Manor House Hotel and Green Dragon whilst at Dronny Bottom you will find the Beer Stop, Dronfield Arms, Underdog bar and White Swan. Also not far from the High Street, across the road from Sainburys, is the Victoria.
The Victoria is a typical street corner boozer with dart board, pool table and football on the telly. For festival day they will have a DJ on playing tunes from 3pm until about 10pm.
At the Manor House, their cafe bar opens serving breakfast in the morning with their bar opening from 10am. However festivities are outside from midday with the rear drinks terrace extended into part of the car park where they will have two outside bars (one serving cask ale from Abbeydale Brewery with the other bar serving lager, spirits etc) and a food trailer from Pellizco (Mexican street food). Live music will be provided outside by the Britpop rockers at 4pm and 6pm then from 7:30pm onwards DJ Brad Gee will be keeping the party going.
The extensive outdoor drinking area at the Blue Stoops gets extended into the closed off car park and will be filled with 4 outside bars, a food stall doing burgers and loaded chips whilst a DJ will be out there providing a sound track!
The Green Dragon also extends their outside drinking area into a closed off car park on festival day. An outside bar serves cask ale, shorts and bottles supplementing the normal pub bar inside and a fish & chip van will be serving food there. It all opens at midday with DJ Higgz providing a soundtrack throughout the event until late except when live acts are on stage – We are Little Rock at 3pm, Andy Gates at 5pm and Cabronitas band at 8pm.
The Dronfield Arms closes their car park off too in order to add extra features to the usual pub bar, terrace and Pizza Pi kiosk. On festival day there is an outside bar, Cow Boys Burgers stall and music stage. Live music kicks off at 1pm with Josh Feely followed by Magenta Apricots at 2pm, Factor 50 at 3pm, Kickback at 4pm and Leo Millobarrow at 5pm. From 6pm until midnight DJ Phill will be providing party tunes outside for their popular One Valley sunset disco surrounded by trees, river, railway bridge and buildings!
Next door the Underdog bar also adds an outside bar round the back with a range of ciders and craft beer plus hot sandwiches whilst across the road the White Swan make use of their patio area. Live entertainment here begins with We Are Little Rock at 1pm then Dan Aspinall on at 4pm and finally Katie Rose. The England match will be on the TV inside the pub at 5pm.
The Beer Stop is just the other side of the railway bridge, this is a small specialist craft beer shop that also has a few taps of craft beer that can be enjoyed on the yard outside. Two street food traders will be popping up for the afternoon serving fried chicken and tacos and an outside bar is also planned.
Finally a short walk from Dronny Bottom (alternatively a ride on bus 15 or 44) is the Pioneer Club. This is a classic social club building with two rooms – lounge (with pool table and TV) and concert room. It also has a huge grass outdoor area, smoking terrace and car park. The Pioneer run a family friendly event for One Valley outside with bouncy castle, goody bags & games for the kids plus a BBQ stall whilst for the adults there will be a reasonably priced bar and a DJ on all day inbetween live acts – Marie Wells and Ken Lambert Drag.
BUSES
15 Dronfield-Chesterfield via Coal Aston, Apperknowle, Marsh Lane, Hundall, Unstone and Whittington Moor. Venues served: Manor House Hotel, Blue Stoops, Victoria, Beer Stop, Pioneer Club and Miners Arms (Hundall).
16 Dronfield-Chesterfield via Dronfield Woodhouse, Holmesfield, Barlow. Venues served: Manor House Hotel, Blue Stoops, Miners Arms (Dronfield Woodhouse).
43 Sheffield-Chesterfield via Heeley, Woodseats, Meadowhead, Dronfield Sainsburys, Dronfield Woodhouse, Gosforth, Dronfield Fire Station, Unstone and Whittington Moor. Venues served: Victoria, Jolly Farmer, White Swan, Drone Valley Brewery.
44 Sheffield-Chesterfield via Heeley, Woodseats, Meadowhead, Batemoor, Coal Aston, Dronfield Station, Unstone and Whittington Moor. Venues served: Pioneer Club, Beer Stop, Dronfield Arms, Underdog, White Swan, Drone Valley Brewery.
All the above bus services are operated by Stagecoach. The maximum single fare is £3 or a “Silver DayRider” ticket is available offering unlimited all day travel on their services in the area – £6.50 adult or £20 for a group of 5 people. You can buy tickets from the bus driver (cash or contactless) or on the Stagecoach app.
Additionally until 5pm the “Travel Derbyshire On Demand” minibus service operates. This is a bus with no fixed route or timetable, simply request a ride at least an hour in advance using their app and a route is created that caters for all the passengers booked that hour. It can be booked for journeys anywhere in North East Derbyshire and Chesterfield, subject to availability.
TRAINS
Dronfield railway station is served mainly by Northern‘s Leeds-Nottingham service, running hourly through the day and with services continuing late into the evening. Journey planning and fares for rail travel is available from nationalrail.co.uk. Venues walkable from the station are Dronfield Pioneer Club, Beer Stop, Dronfield Arms, Underdog, White Swan, Green Dragon, Manor House Hotel, Blue Stoops and Victoria. Buses serving the station are 15 and 44.
As we head into summer, it is a great time to be heading out into the countryside to visit some of the wonderful country pubs on our patch! In Sheffield & District we are lucky to have the Peak District National Park offering a rural landscape that is breathtakingly beautiful and some useful bus and train links to get you around. For this month’s PUBlic Transport column I thought I’d highlight a few of the routes to try.
A Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket offers unlimited travel all day on any local bus or train in Derbyshire (except the Peak Sightseer tour) plus direct services between Sheffield City Centre and Derbyshire. The bus only ticket costs £9 whilst the bus and train option costs £17. Note you can’t use trains on weekdays before 9am. Alternatively at the moment there is a government funded bus deal where the maximum single fare is capped at just £3.
THE HOPE VALLEY LINE (along with buses 257 and 272)
Northern run an hourly local train service between Sheffield and Manchester that calls at Grindleford, Hathersage, Hope and Edale. Running parallel to the railway is bus route 272 Sheffield-Castleton which serves Fox House, Hathersage, Brough, Bradwell, Hope and Castleton. Both also serve Bamford railway station, however the village itself is a mile up the hill from there, which is served by bus 257 from Sheffield.
There are four pubs in Hathersage that serve real ale. The more down to earth venue in the centre of the village is the Little John Hotel where the tap room features a pool table and table football. A bit of a walk down the road past the railway station to Leadmill Bridge brings you to the Plough Inn with a fantastic choice of outdoor drinking areas. Elsewhere in the village is the George and the Scotsman’s Pack. Alternatively up in the hills with a spectacular view over the valley is the Millstone.
Bamford has just the one pub – the Anglers Rest, offering up to 6 cask ales including some from local breweries, however further up the road is the Yorkshire Bridge Inn and Ladybower Inn, located near the famous Derwent Dams and enjoy a wonderful setting by the reservoirs.
In Bradwell there are two pubs, including the White Hart, which is run by Bradfield Brewery. The bus also passes through Brough, home of Intrepid Brewery.
Hope is where you will find the Old Hall Hotel which hosts a beer & cider festival on most bank holiday weekends whilst across the road is the Woodroffe Arms, a tradional local, whilst down the lane towards Edale is the Cheshire Cheese Inn where you can enjoy cosy dining inside or al fresco drinking in their beer garden.
Castleton has enough pubs in the village for a full days pub crawl as well as a really good specialist off licence, whilst Edale has a couple of pubs including the Old Nag’s Head, which sits at the start of the Pennine Way footpath.
BUS 173 – BAKEWELL TO CASTLETON
If you are travelling from Sheffield, you can connect onto this rural minibus service by using the 218 to Bakewell or at the other end of the route you can connect at Hope from the train or bus 272. Alternatively bus 65 from Sheffield serves Litton and Tideswell. The single vehicle on route 173 shuttles up and down providing a departure once every 2 hours linking a number of villages and offering a scenic ride. Note this bus doesn’t run evenings or Sundays. Check the timetable carefully for the two trips a day that divert via Cressbrookdale.
In Great Longstone you’ll find a couple of pubs and in Little Longstone is the Packhorse Inn, a cosy little pub offering Thornbridge beer and home cooked food. Up the hill from here on the main road junction is Monsal Head with a view over the valley including the former railway viaduct below. You can take in the sights sat outside the Stables Bar behind the Monsal Head Hotel, which is also serves Thornbridge beer.
At Wardlow Mires is the legendary Three Stags’ Heads, a historical, no nonsense small two room pub listed in CAMRA’s National Inventory. A choice of local ales is available.
In Litton is the Red Lion, a cosy cottage style pub with real ales and food
Next along the route is Tideswell, there are three pubs here – the George Inn, Star and Horse & Jockey. A short distance outside the village and also on the bus route is the Anchor, which had its moment of fame as a result of providing tractor spaces in the car park catering for local farmers popping in for lunch!
BUS 65 – SHEFFIELD TO BUXTON
This bus service runs about once every 2 hours during the daytime, 7 days a week. There is no evening service. It serves a number of villages along the way including Grindleford, Calver, Eyam, Foolow, Great Hucklow, Tideswell, Litton and Millers Dale.
At Calver you’ll find the Calver Arms, Eyam the Miners Arms and in Foolow the Bulls Head. Great Hucklow is home to Eyam Brewery along with the Queen Anne pub. Hidden away from the main road at Millers Dale by the river is the Angler’s Rest.
BUS 257 – SHEFFIELD TO BAKEWELL (the long way round)
This bus provides an hourly service out of Sheffield via Yorkshire Bridge to Bamford seven days a week (no evening service) with buses continuing to Bakewell Monday to Saturday. There are some route variations at certain times of day to cater for rural school travel, however the core route runs via Hathersage, Grindleford, Calver, Stoney Middleton, Eyam and Baslow. If you are travelling from Sheffield to Baslow or Bakewell then bus 218 is more direct. The only village on this route not previously mentioned for buses 65, 173 or 272 is Stoney Middleton, here you will find the Moon Inn.
BUS X17 – BARNSLEY TO WIRKSWORTH
This bus links Sheffield, Chesterfield, Matlock, Matlock Bath, Cromford and Wirksworth.
PEAK SIGHTSEER – OPEN TOP BUS TOURS
Mentioned before and covering some of the above areas, two routes operate from 24 May until 25 October, with a daily service up to 21 September. The Red Route is a circular tour from Chatsworth House to Bakewell whilst the Blue route is a linear tour from Chatsworth House to Castleton via Baslow, Calver, Grindleford, Hathersage and Hope. Buses run daytime only on an hourly frequency and a couple of feeder trips run from Meadowhead, Woodseats, Millhouses and Totley. The tour ticket costs £12 and you can hop on and off as much as you like so can visit a pub or two along the way as well as enjoy the scenery!
BUS 61/62 – HILLSBOROUGH – BRADFIELD
These buses run a circular route from Hillsborough Interchange (you can connect with trams and other buses there) taking in Loxley, Bradfield, Dungworth and Stannington and run all day every day except Sunday. Pubs along the way include the Wisewood Inn (home of Loxley Brewery), Nags Head Inn (Bradfield Brewery’s original tap), Old Horns Inn (offering a fantastic view over the valley) and Bradfield Plough.
NEWS
First bus are no longer using X (formerly Twitter) and are directing customers to their app and website for service updates and information.
Rail replacement works take place on Supertram 24 to 30 May (between Cathedral and Middlewood/Malin Bridge), 28 July to 15 August (between Sheffield Station and Gleadless) and 16 to 29 August (between Hillsborough and Middlewood). Replacement buses will operate on the closed sections of route. Additionally Tram Train is not serving Rotherham on Saturday evenings until 25 October to allow a new station at Magna to be built – hopefully it will be open in time for Great British Beer Festival Winter next February!
