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.
Bamford Community Society and Bamford and District History Group have
succeeded in getting Heritage Lottery Funding for a project to research the
history of The Anglers Rest in Bamford. As part of this project we are
looking to collect stories and photographs of The Anglers Rest,
particularity between 1950 and 2000.
Did you used to work there? Have you got any stories about the pub and its
history? Did you have a party there? Have you got any photographs,
particularly of the inside of the pub? Anything is of interest to us to
help fill in gaps in the history of the building.
In October 2013 after a long, hard fought campaign, The Anglers 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.
If you have information about the Anglers, could you contact Sally Soady
[email: bcscompsec@gmail.com ]
Firstly it’s that time of year again – SunFest! We are celebrating our 10th anniversary of the festival, so expect to see 120+ beers (with at least 100 on cask across the tent and the pub!) Keep an eye peeled on social media outlets for the beer list prior to attendance, there is going to be some beauties on sale! Thursday 7th – Sunday 10th at The Rising Sun, Fulwood Road. Plenty of food and entertainment across the weekend too. As always we are supporting a local charity and this year we have chosen to support the Seven Hills WI, whose nominated charity this year is Light Sheffield, helping Sheffield families affected by perinatal mental health illnesses, including Post Natal Depression and anxiety. Please find more information at sevenhillswi.blogspot.co.uk and lightsheffield.org.uk
Right onto the beer! Last Rites made a very long awaited return last month, and the 10 casks we filled were instantly snapped up, although when they will appear on the bar is anybody’s guess (but I would bet some will be around Christmas!). The rest of the brew has been put into (evil) kegs and some more 750ml sharing bottles. Look out for these in Beer Central, Dev Cat, Dram Shop, Hop Hideout, Rising Sun, Turners, Starmore Boss and Walkley Beer Co.
We have been very busy hosting foreign brewers over the last couple of months, and the Hop Smash should be appearing on the bar already which is our 7.4% American IPA with freshly squeezed Grapefruit juice and zest. This beast of a brew was brewed with Bret Kuhnhenn from Kuhnhenn Brewing Company from Michigan. Look out for some bottles of this one as well!
Brand new as well is ‘Sipper’ a Session IPA (or SIPA if you will) and this combines six glorious hops for a refreshing citrus punch! Very easy drinking beer at 3.7%. The pump clip is the first in a new series of ‘Beer Heads’ by the very talented Carl Flint.
After the phenomenal reaction to Laura’s ‘Lady Ra Ra’, we have another staff brewster with her Signature beer, Liz, our GM down at the Dev Cat, brewed her nod to our cousins over the pond with ‘Red, Wit and Blue’, a 4.6% Red Rye Wheat beer with American hops.
There is another Lost Treasure series beer released this month too with ‘Aztec Gold’, a 4.1% single hopped pale beer with Azacca hops from the US. Expect plenty of citrus and tropical fruit flavours bursting through.
As mentioned earlier, we are supporting Seven Hills WI at SunFest, and the annual SunFest special beer will be a 4.1% Lemongrass and Earl Grey Pale Ale. 10p from every pint will be donated by the brewery to the WI and in turn to Light Sheffield. As we go to print, the name is still TBC!
There will be a new birthday beer too, look out for ‘Full Moon Lager’ our twist on our flagship beer Moonshine. We’ve been told Moonshine has converted many a lager drinker over the last twenty years, so we thought we’d pay homage to that!
Cheers and beers! Robin – Abbeydale Brewery
It’s been a busy few weeks here at the brewery.
We were thrilled to pick up our first award with Osiris, our 4.2% New Zealand Pale Ale, claiming Gold and beer of the festival at Stockport Beer and Cider Festival 2016.
The Sheffield Brewer’s Co-operative bar at the Sheffield Food Festival was a great success and the collaboration beer, VIP Six Hop, which was brewed at Neepsend, seems to have gone done well all across the city as well as at the festival itself.
Our collaboration with Hopjacker, a 5.7% oatmeal and grapefruit Breakfast IPA, is out in world and has had some great reviews, with more than a few casks being emptied during the Three Valleys festival in Dronfield. We enjoyed the beer and the brew day so much that plans for a version 2 of the Breakfast IPA and for the return collaboration at Hopjacker are already underway.
And we’ve also been busy brewing new beer! Currently in one of the conditioning tanks is Red Equinox, an American Red Ale hopped exclusively with (no prizes for guessing!) the US hop, Equinox, and in the fermenting vessel is Astraeus, a 4.2% pale ale hopped with loads of Galaxy and Calypso hops. Next in the pipeline is the first of what will be an ongoing series of single hopped IPAs and – following a trial version that had great reviews at the Sheaf View – a full brew of a mango infused tropical pale ale.
Cheers – Gavin, Neepsend Brew Co.
Another Sheffield micropub is on the way with work now started fitting out a shop unit on Glossop Road in Broomhill that was previously occupied by a gift shop called Knowle’s Emporium and soon to be known as Itchy Pig Ale House.
The Noah’s Ark in Crookes now once again sells real ale.
A minor refit including adjustments to the bar set up has taken place at the Banner Cross.
Stocksbridge Rugby Club held their first beer festival on the 18th June.
The Wellington at Shalesmoor tram stop has now been sold to James Birkett’s Sheaf Inns putting it in the great company of the Sheaf View (Heeley) and Blake Hotel (Walkley). At the time of going to press it is expected the pub will be closed for about 6 weeks for ‘a bit of a tidy up’ before reopening under the new management.
Planning permission has been refused by North East Derbyshire District Council to demolish The Hearty Oak at Dronfield Woodhouse and build 8 houses on the site on the basis that the council considers that many houses on the site is unacceptable. There is an assumption locally that a revised application for 6 houses will now be submitted.
Chef Cary Brown has moved on from the Royal Oak at Millthorpe and is now running the Devonshire Arms at Middle Handley. Former Sheffield Star food reviewer Martin Dawes, who is now retired but still writes a blog, visited and Cary explained to him “the Concept is simple, It’s a pub. It’s a bit posh but it’s not a gastro-pub. It serves proper food. Don’t panic you might get swirls or flecks or foams. You won’t. It tastes good. No pressure if you don’t want to eat but that bloke at the bar just came in for a pint and weakened at the thought of a lobster roll. You pay for your food and drink when you order and don’t ask for a tab. In the past it was a pub with a restaurant. We want to get it back to being a pub again with drinkers in. Nice drinkers – imagine that, people drinking in a pub! –eating pork scratchings.”
Another month passes without a Steel City brew… but finally a second brew of the year is on the horizon! Forked Tongues is a ‘home’ collab with Isaac from Spanish craft brewery Reptilian. The collab has been an idea since meeting at Birrasana beer festival in Catalunya a few years ago, and is finally happening. Both brewers love their citrus hops, so Forked Tongue is a 100IBU+ Transatlantic Pale Ale featuring Chinook hops and a shedload (scientific measure of quantity there) grapefruit.
The Lost Steel Industry Mojito Sour test batch was an unqualified success, and the sourness so extreme the guys sent a sample to be tested at the Thornbridge lab. The first test revealed a pH of 3.45, and the second revealed a score of ‘sour as ****’ from Dom. A full-length brew has now taken place on Lost Industry’s big kit, so look out for it over the summer!
Both Sheffield & District and Dronfield & District branches of CAMRA name a pub of the year winner in Derbyshire which gets put forward into the opening round of the national competition, the county round, which in this case is North Derbyshire.
Sheffield’s entry was the Anglers Rest in Millers Dale and Dronfield’s was the Miners Arms in Hundall.
We are pleased to learn that the Miners Arms has been named North Derbyshire Pub of the Year and has gone forward to the next stage of judging – the East Midlands regional round.
The landlady of the Miners Arms, Lauren White, despite being fairly young has a great pedigree of pub experience behind her having held management roles previously at the Tickled Trout at Barlow and Travellers Rest in Apperknowle – both very good pubs. The Miners is the first pub of her own and along with the team working there with her have taken on an already good pub and taken it to even better levels.
The Miners is a cosy country community pub with three distinct areas – an area containing a pool table, an area with Sky Sports TV and a quieter lounge area – plus a beer garden backing onto the village cricket pitch and boasting views across the valley.
A range of real ales are available at reasonable prices with the choice often surprisingly adventurous for a country pub. A huge range of ciders are also available and these are listed on the blackboard above the bar.
The pub attracts a cross section of locals, dog walkers, ramblers plus some who make the effort to visit the pub because of its good reputation, no food is served other than crisps, pork pies etc.
The Miners also saw huge numbers flock to the pub recently when it took part in the annual Three Valleys Beer Festival which saw the pub host an outside real ale bar, outside cider bar, burger stall and live music! On festival day a regular free bus service is laid on.
There is a bus stop right outside the pub served by TM Travel route 14 (Dronfield to Chesterfield), however the service is quite limited – check www.tmtravel.co.uk for timetables.
The certificate presentation evening is planned to take place at the Miners on Friday 29th July with an 8pm start and all are welcome.
The other East Midlands county winners now being judged with the Miners for the regional crown…
DERBYSHIRE SOUTH POTY 2016 – The Old Oak, Horsley Woodhouse. (Amber Valley Branch)
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE POTY 2016 – Beer Headz, Retford. (North Notts Branch)
LINCOLNSHIRE POTY 2016 – White Hart, Ludford. (Louth Branch)
LEICESTERSHIRE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE & RUTLAND POTY 2016 – Coach and Horses, Wellingborough. (Northampton Branch)
The Spring bank holiday weekend saw the launch of Sentinel Brewery and the attached bar with the first beer brewed on site available to try as well as the menu of meals and bar snacks. Some of Sheffield CAMRA’s committee were invited to come along to the launch and try the first beers with the wider membership invited to a brewery tour a few weeks later when they hosted our June branch meeting.
A premium experience is offered with what is basically an industrial unit made quite funky, both the beers and the food are quality and the way the beer is served sees a lot of attention to detail with the customer offered a choice of four measures and a choice of glass style to ensure that the flavour and aroma of beer can be enjoyed to the maximum regardless of beer style.
If you want to get even more serious about tasting your beer, professional ‘Beer Academy’ tasting training courses are hosted there every few weeks.
Sentinel beers are available on both cask and keg plus there will be some beers on tap that are piped directly from the conditioning tanks.
The bar is open every day except Monday, from 11am until 11pm (midnight Friday and Saturday) and is located on Shoreham Street, between BBC Radio Sheffield and the inner ring road, a short walk from the Rutland Arms, Royal Standard or railway station.
See www.sentinelbrewing.co. for more details.
The evening of 14th June saw us present the Bath Hotel with their Pub of the Month award and those assembled enjoy not only some good beer but musical entertainment too with DJ Alex Cooper playing 60’s motown and soul plus live music from Fargo Railroad Company & Dobra.
SUMMER OF LOVE….SOMETHING’S BREWING….. FESTIV’ALE 4.0%
Festiv’Ale is a deliciously fiery ginger and lemon tinged Summer ale at 4% made with Centennial hops and infused with bags of ginger flavour. This is number six of our top ten reasons we love the Sheffield city region. Whether you love music, literature, film, comedy, beer, making things, comedy, people, history, theatre, sport the Sheffield city-region offers a tantalising range of festivals to suit all comers. So we thought we’d celebrate with a Festiv’Ale!
The Sheffield Brewery Beer Club – diarise our next event: a weekender – Fri July 1st and Sat 2nd July 5pm – 11pm. Our fourth first Friday/Saturday back at the beginning of June was another fab weekend – and the sunshine certainly brought a fun loving crowd! Hello to all our new members. Congratulations again to our neighbours, the mighty Peddler Market, www.peddlermarket.co.uk they’ll be open again the same weekend, and will showcase another fresh line-up of Britain’s best street food traders, alongside top-notch craft beers, freshly made cocktails, live music and art. You’ve got to be there, the atmosphere is brilliant and gets better at each event!
We’re looking for small semi-acoustic bands/artists. Big thanks to Tom from Silverdale School for playing a fantastic set on the Saturday of our last beer club weekender. Any smallish bands or singers fancy playing at our Beer Club please get in touch with Pete at the brewery.
Viewing of Blanco Art Studios in Albyn Works Sat 2nd July at 2pm – Our brewery forms part of Albyn Works and the folk who run the place are opening up an area to create artist studios. This will be an opportunity to grab a space and become part of this newly formed arts workspace. At the same time pop over to Peddlers and grab a bite!
The Sportsman, (Main Street, Hackenthorpe, S12 4LA) has recently gained a place on the CAMRA Regional Inventory of Pub Interiors and has been proposed for the prestigious National Inventory.
The Sportsman was the last pub to be built by the Worksop and Retford Brewery (plans dated, 1955 and 1956). ‘Serious discrepancies‘ were found in the 1955 plans, 1956 seeing a successful resubmission.
The previous building was originally in the hands of Sheffield-based Old Albion Brewery who were taken over by the WRB in 1939. WRB were subsequently taken over by Tennants Brewery of Sheffield in 1958, who, in turn, who were taken over by Whitbread in 1962.
Building work was carried out by J.E.Smith (Worksop) Ltd., Kilton Road, Worksop, and the design was by W.S.Daniel, Estates Surveyor for the WRB. At that time, the pub was in North East Derbyshire (Chesterfield Rural District Council), 1973 boundary changes bringing in it into the City of Sheffield.
In the mid 1950’s, Sheffield City Council were developing the new Hackenthorpe estate, and some public house licences were transferred from the centre of Sheffield to the new estate. In October 1955, Derbyshire County Council Planning Department, referring to the licence of the Sportsman, suggested that ‘it would appear that this should be diverted to a site out of the village and towards the estate if possible.’
Superintendent E.Wallis, Renishaw Police Station, responded on 5th.November stating: ‘ This is practicably an impossibility, there are no sites available, the Sheffield Corporation and Planning Authorities would certainly not tolerate any idea of the transferring of this house onto the new estate ….. I suggest that this plan be approved so that the work can be put into operation as soon as possible to give the increasing population the benefit of using a modern house, a wider main road and increased parking facilities.‘
The previous pub fronted the road. It was totally demolished, the front of the new build been built in the same place as the rear of the old building. The pub is remarkably little altered with three rooms, a 1985 map showing there have been no changes to the room layout since construction.
There is a sizeable entrance lobby inside the front door. This originally included a hatch for off-sales. A door on the left leads to the games room which retains a bar counter of a distinctive 1950s style, the bar back fitting and the fixed seating are both original. It now has a pool table but until recently it was a three-quarter sized snooker table. A 1972 painting of the pub is displayed above the bar.
A door to the right of the lobby leads into the lounge bar with another distinctive 1950s style bar counter, the bar back fitting and the fixed seating are original. All bars have original canopies, the shape matching that of the bar. The linked bar feeds the three separate rooms.
A door on the right hand side of the lounge bar leads into a lobby with 1950s panelling to picture frame height all around. A door leads to the concert/function room at the rear with another bar counter of a distinctive 1950s style, the bar back has more bays than that in the lounge bar and the fixed seating is original. There is another large lobby at the rear off of which are the toilets. The wall tiles in the gents ante room and toilets themselves are 1950s light blue ones that have been painted over in a dark blue colour – the gents is otherwise little changed. The ladies has modern tiles. All the doors have distinctive 1950s style wooden handles on one side (brass plates on the ‘push side’). The windows have been replaced with uPVC.
When opened the Sportsman, in addition to bottled Don Jon and Donovan would have offered cask conditioned Worksop Amber (OG 1032.5) and Best Bitter (1038.5). Donovan achieved a Diploma at the British Bottles Institute Competition in 1955 and, in 1899, was described as ‘the Perfection of Strong Ale, Brewed October and November, specially for Christmas.’ Unfortunately, the Sportsman does not currently provide cask-conditioned beer. The hope is that this may change in the future.
Thanks to Tim Knebel at Sheffield Archives for assistance in sourcing original material.
A history of the Worksop and Retford Brewery is available at: http://tinyurl.com/j4d34ow
Right onto the beer! Last Rites made a very long awaited return last month, and the 10 casks we filled were instantly snapped up, although when they will appear on the bar is anybody’s guess (but I would bet some will be around Christmas!). The rest of the brew has been put into (evil) kegs and some more 750ml sharing bottles. Look out for these in Beer Central, Dev Cat, Dram Shop, Hop Hideout, Rising Sun, Turners, Starmore Boss and Walkley Beer Co.
We have been very busy hosting foreign brewers over the last couple of months, and the Hop Smash should be appearing on the bar already which is our 7.4% American IPA with freshly squeezed Grapefruit juice and zest. This beast of a brew was brewed with Bret Kuhnhenn from Kuhnhenn Brewing Company from Michigan. Look out for some bottles of this one as well!
Brand new as well is ‘Sipper’ a Session IPA (or SIPA if you will) and this combines six glorious hops for a refreshing citrus punch! Very easy drinking beer at 3.7%. The pump clip is the first in a new series of ‘Beer Heads’ by the very talented Carl Flint.
After the phenomenal reaction to Laura’s ‘Lady Ra Ra’, we have another staff brewster with her Signature beer, Liz, our GM down at the Dev Cat, brewed her nod to our cousins over the pond with ‘Red, Wit and Blue’, a 4.6% Red Rye Wheat beer with American hops.
There is another Lost Treasure series beer released this month too with ‘Aztec Gold’, a 4.1% single hopped pale beer with Azacca hops from the US. Expect plenty of citrus and tropical fruit flavours bursting through.
As mentioned earlier, we are supporting Seven Hills WI at SunFest, and the annual SunFest special beer will be a 4.1% Lemongrass and Earl Grey Pale Ale. 10p from every pint will be donated by the brewery to the WI and in turn to Light Sheffield. As we go to print, the name is still TBC!
There will be a new birthday beer too, look out for ‘Full Moon Lager’ our twist on our flagship beer Moonshine. We’ve been told Moonshine has converted many a lager drinker over the last twenty years, so we thought we’d pay homage to that!
Cheers and beers! Robin – Abbeydale Brewery 
![TMB18 Forked Tongue [6634987]](https://sheffield.camra.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TMB18-Forked-Tongue-6634987-300x400.jpg)
The Lost Steel Industry Mojito Sour test batch was an unqualified success, and the sourness so extreme the guys sent a sample to be tested at the Thornbridge lab. The first test revealed a pH of 3.45, and the second revealed a score of ‘sour as ****’ from Dom. A full-length brew has now taken place on Lost Industry’s big kit, so look out for it over the summer! 
The landlady of the Miners Arms, Lauren White, despite being fairly young has a great pedigree of pub experience behind her having held management roles previously at the Tickled Trout at Barlow and Travellers Rest in Apperknowle – both very good pubs. The Miners is the first pub of her own and along with the team working there with her have taken on an already good pub and taken it to even better levels.
The Miners is a cosy country community pub with three distinct areas – an area containing a pool table, an area with Sky Sports TV and a quieter lounge area – plus a beer garden backing onto the village cricket pitch and boasting views across the valley.
A range of real ales are available at reasonable prices with the choice often surprisingly adventurous for a country pub. A huge range of ciders are also available and these are listed on the blackboard above the bar.
The pub attracts a cross section of locals, dog walkers, ramblers plus some who make the effort to visit the pub because of its good reputation, no food is served other than crisps, pork pies etc.
The Miners also saw huge numbers flock to the pub recently when it took part in the annual Three Valleys Beer Festival which saw the pub host an outside real ale bar, outside cider bar, burger stall and live music! On festival day a regular free bus service is laid on.
There is a bus stop right outside the pub served by TM Travel route 14 (Dronfield to Chesterfield), however the service is quite limited – check www.tmtravel.co.uk for timetables.
The certificate presentation evening is planned to take place at the Miners on Friday 29th July with an 8pm start and all are welcome.
The other East Midlands county winners now being judged with the Miners for the regional crown…
DERBYSHIRE SOUTH POTY 2016 – The Old Oak, Horsley Woodhouse. (Amber Valley Branch)
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE POTY 2016 – Beer Headz, Retford. (North Notts Branch)
LINCOLNSHIRE POTY 2016 – White Hart, Ludford. (Louth Branch)
LEICESTERSHIRE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE & RUTLAND POTY 2016 – Coach and Horses, Wellingborough. (Northampton Branch) 
A premium experience is offered with what is basically an industrial unit made quite funky, both the beers and the food are quality and the way the beer is served sees a lot of attention to detail with the customer offered a choice of four measures and a choice of glass style to ensure that the flavour and aroma of beer can be enjoyed to the maximum regardless of beer style.
If you want to get even more serious about tasting your beer, professional ‘Beer Academy’ tasting training courses are hosted there every few weeks.
Sentinel beers are available on both cask and keg plus there will be some beers on tap that are piped directly from the conditioning tanks.
The bar is open every day except Monday, from 11am until 11pm (midnight Friday and Saturday) and is located on Shoreham Street, between BBC Radio Sheffield and the inner ring road, a short walk from the Rutland Arms, Royal Standard or railway station.
See www.sentinelbrewing.co. for more details. 
Festiv’Ale is a deliciously fiery ginger and lemon tinged Summer ale at 4% made with Centennial hops and infused with bags of ginger flavour. This is number six of our top ten reasons we love the Sheffield city region. Whether you love music, literature, film, comedy, beer, making things, comedy, people, history, theatre, sport the Sheffield city-region offers a tantalising range of festivals to suit all comers. So we thought we’d celebrate with a Festiv’Ale!
The Sheffield Brewery Beer Club – diarise our next event: a weekender – Fri July 1st and Sat 2nd July 5pm – 11pm. Our fourth first Friday/Saturday back at the beginning of June was another fab weekend – and the sunshine certainly brought a fun loving crowd! Hello to all our new members. Congratulations again to our neighbours, the mighty Peddler Market, www.peddlermarket.co.uk they’ll be open again the same weekend, and will showcase another fresh line-up of Britain’s best street food traders, alongside top-notch craft beers, freshly made cocktails, live music and art. You’ve got to be there, the atmosphere is brilliant and gets better at each event!
We’re looking for small semi-acoustic bands/artists. Big thanks to Tom from Silverdale School for playing a fantastic set on the Saturday of our last beer club weekender. Any smallish bands or singers fancy playing at our Beer Club please get in touch with Pete at the brewery.
Viewing of Blanco Art Studios in Albyn Works Sat 2nd July at 2pm – Our brewery forms part of Albyn Works and the folk who run the place are opening up an area to create artist studios. This will be an opportunity to grab a space and become part of this newly formed arts workspace. At the same time pop over to Peddlers and grab a bite! 
