Cider Pub of the Year 2025

Congratulations to Matt Beety, Mike Pomranz and all at the Old Shoe for being voted the 2025 Sheffield and District CAMRA ‘Cider Pub of the Year.’ The Old Shoe (Unit 20, Orchard Square S1 2FB) opened in the summer of 2023 as the new home of Exemption Ciderhouse, when it relocated from its previous home at The Cider Hole.

The Old Shoe is a modern bar serving a variety of drinks from independent producers. In addition to both cask and keg beer from indie breweries, they also serve three draught ciders and a range of bottled options. These are almost invariably from smaller producers. For example: Against the Grain (London), Ascension (Sussex), Iford (Bradford on Avon), Temple (Dorset), Zapiain (Spain) and from Hertfordshire, Little Pomona, Oliver’s and Ross-on-Wye Cider Company. In addition, created on the premises, is Exemption.

The bar has vinyl records spinning all day and also has a well-stocked ‘Shoe Store.’ The latter provides art prints, bags, bottles, cans, chocolate, coffee beans, glasses, local pub heritage books, records and more. The name refers to the previous use of this ex-shop unit.

In 2015, Mike moved from Brooklyn (New York) to Sheffield. In the UK, he continued to produce cider, focusing on using locally-collected garden apples. In 2020, he launched drinks import company, ‘Quality Ferments.’ Then, in September 2021, came The Cider Hole (Shalesmoor), an urban microcidery, bar, and bottle shop – where he made and served his own Exemption Ciderhouse cider along with over 60 other hand-selected canned and bottled ciders, beer and natural wine. The Cider Hole was our 2023 Cider Pub of the Year. It then closed in order to make way for the Old Shoe.

image: Ellie Grace Photography

Beer Week events

Guided walk: Little Chicago

Sunday 16 March 2025 – walk – start 11:00, finish at Kelham Island Tavern ~12:30

Following the success of previous guided walks, events during Sheffield Beer Week 2025 will include a guided historical walk in Sheffield’s Little Chicago Quarter. We will explore both the pub heritage aspects of the area plus the streets which feature in the book, ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory.’ Thenarrative will explain how Sheffield briefly became the most turbulent city in Britain due to an escalating gang war involving the Park Brigade, Mooney Gang, the Gas Tank Gang and many others.

The short walk will also explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area, examining the myths and reality of a tumultuous year in Sheffield history. Along the way, mention will be made of the 1884 ‘Sheffield Drinks Map,’ George Orwell, the establishment of a coaching inn and the Sheffield pub with the most local CAMRA awards.

The walk will be led by local historian and writer, John Stocks and ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs’ editor, Dave Pickersgill. The comfortable walk of just over one mile, with one minor ascent, will last for approximately 90 minutes, including one en route stop, followed by post-walk drink and discussion.

Includes:

* Guided historical walk

* copy of the new Pub Heritage walk booklet which features Little Chicago (A5, 32 pages, rrp £2.99)

* the opportunity to purchase a copy of  ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory’ (second edition) at the reduced price of £10 (cash only)

DATE: Sunday 16 March 2025

Meet: 11:00 outside the Sheffield Combined Court Centre, West Bar, S3 8BH

Finish: 12:30 Kelham Island Tavern, 62 Russell Street, S3 8RW

Cost: £4.95

Tickets available at:   Eventbrite

Number of places available: 20

  • Pub Heritage Talk: Little Chicago


Thursday 13 March 2025 – 20:00 – Harlequin

This event is a history/pub heritage talk which will concentrate on the Little Chicago area of Sheffield, taking you from the early part of C19th up to the current day. We will explore both the pub heritage aspects of the area plus the streets which feature in the book, ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory.’ The narrative will explain how Sheffield briefly became the most turbulent city in Britain due to an escalating gang war involving the Park Brigade, Mooney Gang, the Gas Tank Gang and many others.

The talk will also explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area, examining the myths and reality of a tumultuous year in Sheffield history. Along the way, mention will be made of the 1884 ‘Sheffield Drinks Map,’ George Orwell, the establishment of a coaching inn and the Sheffield pub with the most local CAMRA awards.

The talk will be led by local historian and writer, John Stocks and ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs’ editor, Dave Pickersgill. The talk will last for approximately 60 minutes, followed by post-talk drink and discussion.

Includes:

* historical talk (one hour, including questions)

* copy of the new Pub Heritage walk booklet which features Little Chicago (A5, 32 pages, rrp £2.99)

* the opportunity to purchase a copy of  ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory’ (second edition) at the reduced price of £10.00 (cash only)

DATE: Thursday 13 March 2025 – 20:00

Cost: £4.95

Tickets available at:   Eventbrite

Number of places available: 30

Steel City 48 – charity

Thanks to everyone at the festival who supported Weston Park Cancer Charity (WPCC). Your generosity produced a record charity donation from the Steel City Beer Festival – a whopping £2700.00 – a donation rate of £1.20/minute!

This magnificent sum includes loose change, unused beer tokens, eBay sales of three full sets of SCBF48 beer mats and net proceeds from the charity beer. Thanks to everyone who contributed and thanks again to Abbeydale Brewery for providing the charity beer, ‘Together at Every Step,’ a 4.3% abv dry hopped pale ale.

 As Festival Organiser, Paul Crofts said, ‘It’s a fantastic sum to raise for such a good charity. It was far more than we predicted and shows how much local people appreciate the work of Weston Park.’

Sam Heritage, WPCC Fundraising Manager said, ‘we are very grateful for your generous support and for making our team of volunteers and staff, plus Brontë feel so welcome. I’ve had amazing feedback on just how brilliant it has all been …. it really will make such a difference.’

The festival was formally opened by local legend, and South Yorkshire firefighter, Brontë Jones. WPCC supporter, Brontë, was runner-up in the 2024 series of the prime-time BBC TV programme, Gladiators.

Located in Sheffield, Weston Park Hospital is the main cancer treatment centre for South Yorkshire and large parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. In the UK, around 1,000 cancers are diagnosed every day.

WPCC is here to face cancer with you. Their services, advice, therapies and support are for you and the people close to you, helping everyone to live with, and beyond, cancer.

Contact:  0114 553 3330   westonpark.org.uk

Photos: Dave Pickersgill (SCBF48) and Hannah Watson (WPCC)

Little Chicago gets blogged

Well-known micropub blogger, Scott Spencer, recently visited Sheffield where he was guided through one of our published pub heritage walks: Little Chicago. He then visited another eleven pubs, mostly new to his blogs. We started at West Bar taking in the excellent, and varied, beer offerings in the Crow, Shakespeare’s and the Kelham Island Tavern while discussing both happenings from the major expansion of Sheffield in the 18th century and episodes from the 1920s Sheffield gang wars. Also mentioned was local art works, the Methodist Church, George Orwell, the 1884 ‘Drinks Map of Sheffield,’ changes in employment patterns and the positive effect of immigration

Kelham Island followed before the Harlequin, the Riverside and a sweep up to Trippet Lane, via 2/6 and Perch. Full details of Scott’s enjoyable time in Sheffield are available at: https://micropubadventures.co.uk/2024/11/02/2-11-24-sheffield-little-chicago/ . He hopes to visit Sheffield for a third blog at some point next Spring.

On this Sheffield visit, Scott was accompanied by Chris, (Editor of Inspire, the Chesterfield CAMRA magazine) and Sheffield and District CAMRA members Dave, Jenny and Malcolm. Details of the Little Chicago walk and the accompanying booklet are available at: https://sheffield.camra.org.uk/rhp/

Festival volunteers reunion

On 9th November, over forty SCBF48 volunteers enjoyed a celebratory trip to Nottingham. An early start meant we arrived as the pubs opened. Using the map provided, we split into smaller groups and spread across the city centre in order to sample the beery delights available. Personally, I visited three breweries, a couple of micropubs with football references and several other establishments.

The three breweries, Angel Brewhouse, Neon Raptor and Liquid Light provided a range of beer styles, some strong esoteric keg offerings at the Sneinton Market home of Raptor contrasting with more traditional offerings at the Grade II listed, Angel:  Angel Delight Pale 4.9% and Hung, Drawn and Quartered Porter 5.2%. Liquid Light operate from an industrial unit on the edge of the city centre, a site which you struggle to find by accident. Their cosy tap room included four cask ales all at the very reasonable price of £3.50/pint, or less. We appreciated the 1972 quote from Ziggy Stardust: ‘Beer light to guide us.’

Partizan, a micropub named after Partizan Belgrade provided Elusive Brewing Leaves (4.2%). Copious memorabilia include a framed programme from an Inter Cites Fairs Cup game at Elland Road in December 1967. Disappointingly, the Kilpin café, named after, English expatriate, Herbert Kilpin, the founder of AC Milan, had neither cask beer nor a reference to the Rossoneri.

Traditional pubs visited included the grade II listed Bell Inn, the small unspoilt Dragon, a Castle Rock renovation, the Fox and Grapes, one-roomed Kean’s Head and a family-run free house, King William IV (King Billy). Overall, an enjoyable day:  good company, good pubs, and good beer.

Silver Fox

The Silver Fox was demolished in September 2024.

This large pub, named after the nearly stainless steel manufacturing firm of Samuel Fox and Co. Ltd. opened in April 1963. At the time of closure (Spring 2019), the interior was very little changed with two bars, off sales and a rear passageway with some seating, The upstairs functions room remained virtually untouched. The entrance led into a passage with doors to the tap room on the left and lounge bar on the right. There were two hatches to the servery in the passage that were the original off sales.

The public bar on the left retained the original bar counter front that has a number of mirrored panels and a wooden surround but, like, lounge bar on the right the original light oak wood had a very dark stain. There was a hallway at the rear with one table and a few chairs in a tiny area on the far left. The gents retained the original urinals but had modern wall tiling. Upstairs had the intact original function room had a dado of Japanese quartered oak. It retained the servery with its curved panelled bar counter and bar back of oak still with the original stain.

In June 2020, the pub was purchased from Trust Inns by a local property company, Fish Developments. In September 2022, planning permission was granted in order to demolish the building and erect eleven dwelling houses with associated parking.

Little Chicago pub booklet

Following the success of the 2023 pub heritage guided walk booklet, CAMRA Sheffield & District have produced a second booklet focused on Little Chicago. Publication will coincide with the forthcoming 48th Sheffield Steel City Beer Festival: Kelham Island Museum, 16-19 October.

This new booklet (A5, 32 pages, full colour throughout, £2.99 RRP) takes you up the hill from West Bar to Scotland Street before heading towards Kelham Island. In addition to information about the three excellent pubs en route (the Crow, the Kelham Island Tavern, and Shakespeares), copious historical detail is included. This includes references to George Orwell, the temperance movement, and the Sheffield gang wars.

Festival events concerned with the booklet include both a guided historical walk and an illustrated talk.

The short walk will explore both the pub heritage aspects of the area and the streets featured in the book, Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory, with a narrative explaining how Sheffield briefly became the most turbulent city in Britain due to an escalating gang war involving the Gas Tank Gang, the Mooney Gang, the Park Brigade, and many others. The walk will also explore the beer, social, and industrial heritage of the area, examining the myths and reality of a tumultuous period in Sheffield history.

The talk will concentrate on the area covered in the booklet, taking you from the 19th century up to the current day. Along the way, mention will be made of the 1884 Sheffield Drinks Map, the establishment of a coaching inn, and the Sheffield pub with the most local CAMRA awards. A similar talk will take place at the Crow on Thursday 10 October at 20:00.

The talks and walks will be led by local historian and writer John Stocks and Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs editor Dave Pickersgill. This booklet is the second in this growing series. The 2025 edition will focus on Neepsend, with the following year looking at Kelham Island.

Full booking details for both the festival events are available at sheffield.camra.org.uk/sc#events

Sponsored by Abbeydale Brewery and the Crow, the booklet is available from a growing number of local outlets, including: the Biblioteka, Crow, Draughtsman (Doncaster), the Famous Sheffield Shop, Hop Hideout, Kelham Island Books and Records, Kelham Island Tavern, Millennium Galleries and Saint Mars of the Desert tap room. For retail inquiries and postal copies, please contact: pubheritage@sheffield.camra.org.uk.

Pub of the Month September 2024

Congratulations to Adam and the team at the Crow Inn, our Pub of the Month for September 2024: Adam Swithenbank, Amber Raven, Charlotte Walker, Chris Bamford, Kate Major, Lizzie Dabner and Michael Deakin.

Originally opened in 1797 as a Thomas Rawson house, 2010 saw the pub becoming a small hotel, the Sleep Inn. In June 2019, with assistance from local entrepreneur, Wendy Woodhouse, it reopened under the same management as the Rutland: this pub chain has recently expanded to include the Harlequin.

The pub logo shows a crow stealing the ‘N,’ from the Crown, the previous name of the pub.

Beer-wise, the Crow features five cask beers and 14 keg lines. The beer range is innovative, including both hard-to-find limited-edition and obscure imports, with gluten-free Abbeydale Heathen (4.3%) the only permanent resident.

Regular beer events are held: these have included hosting Cantillon Zwanze Day, a Tilquin
takeover, a Yonder meet-the-brewer and a talk about Victorian drinks maps. There is also a selection of cans and bottles, an extensive range of malt whiskies and bourbons, a selection of ports and wines and plenty of rums and gins.

Kev’s Pies are sold and there are seven comfortable en-suite hotel rooms. 

Apart from the opening-out of the room on the right, the basic layout of the interior is relatively unchanged. Unusually, the off-sales was approached via the entrance to the rear yard, purchasers entering through a small door. This entrance was removed in 1972. The décor in the room on the left includes fourteen framed pieces of artwork by Lewis (Lewy) Ryan. These images were originally produced as labels for canned beers, mostly Abbeydale.
 
Historically, the pub was a key player in the 1840s Chartist protests. Two decades later, the Sheffield Outrages saw the murder, in the Crown, of James Linley and in the 1920s, the pub was at the heart of the Sheffield Gang Wars. In the Victorian era the area was home to many pubs: a pub on every corner, open from dawn to well beyond dusk. The 1884 Sheffield Drink Map indicates 14 licensed premises and one off-licence on Scotland Street, a concentration repeated across the city. A framed black and white copy is on display in the Crow. These maps were originally produced by temperance societies in order to guide users regarding premises it was felt they should avoid. They were also extensively used at annual meetings of local magistrates as they made decisions regarding the renewal of drinks licences.

The Crow fully deserves its place in the CAMRA national Good Beer Guide and also features in the new Sheffield Pub Heritage Walk booklet which focuses on the Little Chicago area. Congratulations to all at the Crow on achieving Pub of the Month: join us for the presentation on Tuesday 10 September and/or the heritage walk which is one of the events at the forthcoming Steel City 48 Beer & Cider Fest. 

Steel City beer festival opening

The 2024 Steel City Beer and Cider Festival will be opened by local legend, and South Yorkshire firefighter, Bronte Jones, runner-up in the 2024 series of the BBC hit TV programme, Gladiators.

The BBC reboot was a huge success, reeling in 8.7 million viewers across its first seven days on air. Filmed in the Utility Arena, the show began in January and showed 16 competitors complete various challenges for the chance to be crowned Gladiators Champion.

Bronte recently ran the Sheffield Half Marathon in memory of her boyfriend’s cousin Molly Midgley, who tragically died aged just 27 of a rare cancer, adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). She and the rest of ‘Team Molly’ were raising money for our festival charity, Weston Park Cancer Charity.

The Steel City Beer & Cider Festival is held at Kelham Island Museum from 16 to 19 October featuring a range of around 200 cask ales along with other craft beers, traditional cider & perry, street food, live music and more. See sheffield.camra.org.uk/festival for more details.

An afternoon in Castleford

We recently visited Castleford: an interesting mix of new bars and long-established outlets. The Ninth opened the day before our visit and provided, among others, Horsforth House Trousers (4.4%). Other recently established outlets, Doghouse and Yorkshire Craft Beers, have a range of cask/craft beers. Among others, Doghouse provided Amber (4.5%) from Selby-based, Jolly Sailor and Theakston Peculiar IPA (5.1%). The latter is hopped with UK-grown Harlequin, Jester and Olicana. 

Yorkshire Craft is located in an old riverside mill, close to the 2008 Millennium Bridge with its striking curved design. This compliments the nearby railway underpass, Tickle Cock Bridge.

Wetherspoons outlet, the Glass Blower, the ex-main post and sorting office, provided an excellent 6% pale, Hoptropolis, brewed at Hook Norton, with assistance from Mitch Steele (New Realm Brewing, Atlanta). Voted the Champion Beer in the Autumn 2023 Wetherspoons Beer Festival, this IPA utilises American Azacca, Citra and Mosaic hops. Locally, glass-making began in the 17th century. 200 years later, it was Castleford’s main industry, disappearing with the 1983 closure of United Glass. 

Our last beer was in the Junction, a GBG pub which, for several years, has prided itself on providing ‘beer from the wood,’ the Old Mill Styrian Wolf (4.2%) hitting the spot before the train home. 

Dave & Simon Pickersgill

Castleford can easily be reached from Sheffield by train – the Sheffield to Leeds all stations stopping service operated by Northern calls there.