Paul has been on the branch committee for a few years taking on Vice Chair, Good Beer Guide and Pub of the Month/Year Coordinator roles before becoming our new Chair.
Paul had a long career in IT and business project/programme management roles for a major financial institution before retiring in 2021. He now undertakes some part time exam invigilation work at Westfield School as well as helping his wife, Bev, look after their four young grandchildren on a regular basis.
Paul and Bev are often in their local, the Chantry Inn at Handsworth. They love foreign and UK travel which often involves beer!
Paul is passionate about supporting great beer, Sheffield’s fantastic pubs and also our superb annual beer festival. He is always willing to chat with members and punters over a pint or two.
Our overall 2026 Pub of the Year and also Sheffield Kelham Island & Neepsend area pub of the year is the outstanding Kelham Island Tavern. The Kelham Island area is now a Sheffield beer tourist attraction, with excellent bus and tram connections from the City Centre.
The overall winner is selected by judges visiting all the area winners, which were voted for by our members, and objectively scoring them against nationally set criteria.
Constructed in the 1830s as part of a terrace, and originally operating as the Sawmaker, the pub was later renamed the White Hart, and in 1995 became the Kelham Island Tavern, before closing in 1999. In March 2002, the derelict building was purchased and reopened, specialising in real ale.
Over the last 22 years, the pub has continued to thrive and since 2018, under the management of Josh and Louise, it has continued to offer a wide range of both cask and craft beers always including a porter, stout and many IPA’s and bitters.
It has an excellent rear beer garden and the pub maintains the standards to which many others aspire. The beer range is consistently excellent, always including at least one from Blue Bee.
A simple snack menu is available including pork pies. The Kelham Island Tavern was the first pub to be CAMRA National Pub of the Year two years running (in 2008 & 2009). It has been CAMRA Yorkshire Pub of the Year five times and now Sheffield Pub of the Year on 19 occasions: a record which is highly unlikely to be overtaken.
Please join us on Tuesday 30 June from 8pm as we present the well deserved awards to Josh, Louise and team.
Josh, Louise and their team at the Kelham Island Tavern receiving their 2025 award from our Chairman Paul Manning.
Area winners
Dog & Partridge (City Centre) – presentation on 28 April
Kelham Island Tavern (Kelham Island & Neepsend) – presentation on 30 June
Blake Hotel, Walkley (North)
Chantry Inn, Handsworth (East) – presentation on 21 May
Sheaf View, Heeley (South) – presented 19 March
Rising Sun, Nether Green (West) – presentation on 31 March
Red Lion, Litton (District) – presentation on 18 April
The Chantry Inn has been voted as Sheffield and District CAMRA East Area Pub of the Year for 2025.
This historic pub which was built around 1250 is uniquely one of only four pubs in the UK set in consecrated grounds being within the boundary walls of St Mary’s parish church in Handsworth.
It comprises of three different rooms each with some original and unique features including real fireplaces, beamed low ceilings and even the bell pushes used in previous days to order the ale. There are also claims of various tunnels and passageways from the cellar to the church.
It has had a varied past originally being a chantry and safe house for nuns, then a washhouse and a school before being a pub for much of the later years from the early 1800’s.
Previously known as the Cross Keys, Chantry Brewery acquired the pub in early 2019 and undertook a tasteful restoration and deliver real quality beers. There are always 5 cask ales on tap from Chantry brewery with a rotating special alongside the regulars of New York pale, Iron and Steel bitter, Special Reserve and Diamond Stout. There are also changing keg beers available often from Abbeydale, Tiny Rebel or Beavertown as well as real cider and Chantry brewery’s own Helles lager.
Congratulations to all involved with the Chantry Inn including the brewery and the pub manager Terry and his partner Alison. The area pub of the year award presentation is planned for the evening of Thursday 21st May from around 8pm onwards and all are welcome to join the celebration.
You can find the pub at 400 Handsworth Road, S13 9BZ. The nearest bus stop in on the main road near the pub and is served by buses 30, 30a, 52, 52a, 70, 70a, 73, 95, X5.
ALL THE AREA WINNERS
Sheffield North: Blake, Walkley
Sheffield City Centre: Dog & Partridge, Trippet Lane
Sheffield South: Sheaf View, Heeley
Sheffield West: Rising Sun, Nether Green
Sheffield Kelham Island & Neepsend: Kelham Island Tavern
Our 2025 Pub of the Year for Sheffield city centre area is the fabulous Dog & Partridge on Trippet Lane in central Sheffield. The pub has been run for over 13 years now by Sarah and Conor Smith.
The pub itself dates back to 1796 – one of the oldest still operating in Sheffield, and is on the CAMRA Local Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.
On the bar are 4 cask lines, usually including at least one Abbeydale beer (which is Gluten Free), with a choice of a bitter, a stout and 2 paler options. There is also a central column of 4 craft keg lines, and a further 8 keg lines for lagers, ciders, and the ‘Holy Trinity’ of Irish Stouts; Guinness, Beamish and Murphy’s.
The pub offers a range of events including a quiz night every Tuesday followed by ‘Irish Bingo’. There are music sessions on numerous days.
They also offer an Irish pub food menu including a ‘spice bag’ inspired by Ireland’s chinese takeaway menus as well as specials.
They are really racking up the pub awards including ‘Exposed’ Best traditional pub award 2025, The Great British Crawl pub of the year winner 2025, Pints of Sheffield Battle of the Boozers champion 2025 and member of the Guinness Harp guide 2025 as well as their CAMRA award.
Join us on Tuesday 28th April 2026 at around 8pm after the quiz finishes for the presentation of their award.
You can find the pub at 56 Trippet Lane, S1 4EL. Nearest tram stop is City Hall.
ALL THE AREA WINNERS
Sheffield North: Blake, Walkley
Sheffield City Centre: Dog & Partridge, Trippet Lane
Sheffield South: Sheaf View, Heeley
Sheffield West: Rising Sun, Nether Green
Sheffield Kelham Island & Neepsend: Kelham Island Tavern
Our chairman, Paul Manning, his wife Bev along with Sheffield branch members John Wright and John Turner with their wives Eve and Andrea enjoyed a fantastic 4 day break in Oxford sampling many real ales and the tourist sights.
We arrived mid afternoon on a Tuesday and checked into our bed and breakfast hotel on St Clement’s Rd, a 15 minute walk south of the city centre. Keen to explore the ales on offer we first found the Cape of Good Hope pub which had a very pleasant pale called Anthem from St Austell Brewery. We then walked past Magdalen and University colleges along the High Street and sampled Abingdon Bridge bitter from Loose Cannon brewery in the Wheatsheaf a rock/dive bar with an interesting clientele. Next was a GBG entry, The Bear Inn, a recently refurbished Fullers pub reputed to be the oldest pub in Oxford. The London Pride was excellent but pricey at £6.50 – ouch!
We then had our evening meal at a local Indian tapas bar followed by a few excellent pints of Beechwood bitter from Chiltern brewery in the Port Mahon pub which was its Tuesday £3.50 ‘drink the cask dry’ offering – nice!
On the Wednesday we had a spot of ‘culture’ with a 2 hour walking tour round Oxford with a Morse, Endeavour and Lewis theme exploring many filming locations and a few drinking holes including the famous Turf Tavern where we tried its house Education ale – a Greene King brew.
Bev and I then did a short river cruise down the Thames past numerous University colleges boat houses whilst enjoying a can of Time Better Spent a juicy IPA from Tap Social Oxford brewery who employ guests of His Majesty’s Prisons in both the brewing and can design!
A further pint of London Pride in the Head of the River Fullers pub followed by an excellent Italian meal closed out our second day.
Thursday dawned a little cloudier but dry and this time it was the very touristy hop on/hop off bus which included a live commentary by Andy the Hat a local travel guide with loads of interesting facts about the many famous graduates in the various colleges including American presidents, Australian and British prime ministers and inventors and explorers. We also visited the Morse bar in the very grand Randolph hotel where it was an Irish coffee and cocktail for us.
We then all headed out of Oxford in a six seater Uber to the splendid Oxford brewery in the nearby village of Horspath. We were welcomed as old friends in their taproom where we enjoyed splendid pints of their cask offerings of Trinity, Prospect and Matilda’s Tears named brews. One purchased T shirt and cracked head on a door beam with ‘a mind your head’ sign on it later we returned to Oxford for our evening meal this time in a lovely Thai restaurant next to another grade ll listed GBG pub, the Chequers, where we enjoyed a lovely pint of Adnams brewery favourite Broadside.
Our final day saw more visits to the Ashmolean museum, a look round the splendid New College with its Harry Potter themed dining hall and famous courtyard and tree featured in the film franchise.
The afternoon started with a visit to the fantastic Grapes pub which is Oxford CAMRA branch’s pub of the year for 2025 to deliver some of our festival beermats. It wasn’t hard to see why they won the award and we enjoyed several beers including SUP Golden Ale from Northern Monk brewery, 1950’s Burton Ruby Mild by Heritage brewing, a peach Melba bitter from Thornbridge and my personal favourite, a limited edition brew from Vale brewery named Our Shark to celebrate the 50 years anniversary of the Jaws film. They also served superb reasonably priced food with 3 tapas style plates duly consumed.
After enjoying a pint of Oxford Pale Ale from Chadlington brewery in The Kings Arms, a Youngs pub with more Sheffield beer festival beermats donated we spent the final afternoon doing a ‘Mystery Guide’ book tour round Oxford solving various clues on historic buildings and plaques etc to solve a ‘crime’ where the answer was revealed in a local pub. In our case it was the Bear Inn again which had numerous cricket club ties on display which revealed the culprit. Very enjoyable but tiring 3 hours which at least got our step counts way up. Our final evening was a visit to the city’s number 1 Tripadvisor rated restaurant called the Antep kitchen where we enjoyed splendid Turkish cuisine and Turkish Efee bottled beer.
A final couple of beers again at the Port Mahon pub closed out our stay. A lovely city with some great beers that is well worth a visit.
Our overall 2025 Pub of the Year – and also Kelham Island & Neepsend Area Pub of the Year – is the outstanding Kelham Island Tavern. The Kelham Island area has become a Sheffield beer destination in its own right, easily accessible from the city centre by bus and tram.
Constructed in the 1830s as part of a terrace, the building originally operated as The Sawmaker, later becoming The White Hart, and in 1995, The Kelham Island Tavern. It closed in 1999, and the derelict building was purchased and reopened in March 2002, with a focus on real ale.
Over the last 22 years, the pub has gone from strength to strength. Since 2019, under the management of Josh and Louise, it has continued to offer a wide range of both cask and craft beers – always including a stout, porter, and a selection of IPAs and bitters. The beer range is consistently excellent, always featuring at least one from local brewery Blue Bee. The pub also boasts an excellent rear beer garden and maintains the standards to which many others aspire. A simple snack menu is available, including pork pies.
Kelham Island Tavern was the first pub to be named CAMRA National Pub of the Year two years running (2008 & 2009), and has been CAMRA Yorkshire Pub of the Year five times. It has also taken the title of Sheffield Pub of the Year on 18 occasions – a record that’s unlikely ever to be overtaken.
Please join us on Tuesday 8th July as we present these well-deserved awards to Josh, Louise and the team.
Firstly many thanks to our members who attended our AGM at the Lescar pub on 10 May. We enjoyed a good meeting and social helped by a CAMRA discount on their cask ales.
We heard our chairperson’s annual report, passed a couple of motions aimed at improving our ability to change internal process and our Pub of the Month awards policy and received our branch accounts (which are in a good state). The existing committee were all re-elected with Paul Manning as chair, Phil Ellett secretary and Paul Crofts as treasurer along with all our other members. We welcomed Dan Rowe onto the committee as our new Pub of the Month coordinator. My thanks go to all our committee who work hard all year to support the branch.
We had good input from Kevin Kearney, our Yorkshire regional director who also handed over two awards to Dave Pickersgill our heritage secretary who was a runner up in the national CAMRA campaigner of the year competition and to Andy Cullen & Robin Lunnon as our website editor and designer which won a bronze award in the national CAMRA website of the year competition. Both were very well deserved.
Finally thank you again to all our members for your support this year and please continue to join us at our branch socials and events, contribute to and enjoy our excellent BEER MATTERS magazine and most importantly support our fantastic local pubs and breweries.
A careful restoration of the original Ind Coope 1930s interior gave this two roomed pub a conservation award in 2002 and acknowledgement by CAMRA as one of Britain’s pubs with a three star pub interior of exceptional national historic importance. The bar lies between the tiled lounge, a small corridor drinking area and the cosy well-upholstered snug. The owners, Brian and Ruth Johnson, have been on the Sheffield pub scene for many years – although not necessarily high profile – and after about 10 years of the pub being leased to Thornbridge Brewery, Brian is back running the pub with a team of staff. The Bath is a simple drinkers pub with friendly service and is somewhere to sit with a nice pint of local ale and enjoy conversation or perhaps a game of darts. It also has some community focus with occasional music events and the smaller of the two rooms being available to hire for meetings etc.
The Bath is one of the more atmospheric of Sheffield’s pubs. They always offer a wide range of excellent well-kept real ales from both local and further afield breweries as well as several keg beers.
Join us from 8pm on Thursday 29th May as we present the well earned certificate.
The Oxbow Micropub opened its doors in January 2020, taking over what was once a kitchen showroom. It was founded by a group of friends who had long dreamed of running their own pub. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, they successfully navigated those early years and are now open every day – thanks in no small part to a brilliant team who help make the Oxbow such a welcoming place to enjoy a drink.
The Oxbow offers a relaxed and friendly environment where everyone is welcome. It features three cask lines and seven keg lines (often including a cider), along with a varied selection of bottled and canned beers and ciders. The beer is sourced from both local breweries and further afield, ensuring there’s something to suit every taste.
The interior is cosy, and there’s also an outdoor seating area. The canopy roof was damaged during the storm in early 2025 but is due to be repaired soon. Please note the pub is a cashless venue.
There are regular tap takeovers and specialist beer events, alongside visiting food vans and a pub quiz every other Wednesday.
The pub is easy to reach via Stagecoach bus 52 or First bus X5, both of which stop nearby. If you’re travelling on the 52, do allow a bit of extra time as the pub is at the very end of the route.
We’re looking forward to presenting the award on Tuesday 10th June at around 8.15pm – please do come along and join the celebration!
On the night the Oxbow will be offering 15% off their normal drinks prices (excluding cans) and Smith’s fish & chip van will be coming along and serving outside. Note the bar shuts at 9pm due to its residential location so get down early!
The team at the Oxbow receiving a Pub of the Month award in March 2024 during Sheffield Beer Week
Congratulations to all our winners. We will be arranging award presentations at all the venues where you can join us to celebrate with them. Please keep an eye on the branch diary on-line and in future Beer Matters for further details
Both the Kelham Island Tavern and the Old Hall at Hope now go forwards to represent the branch in the Yorkshire and North Derbyshire regional pub of the year judging respectively.
Finally thank you to all our members who voted and to our judging panel.
We will also be presenting the Old Shoe with Cider Pub of the Year and Crookes Social Club with Club of the Year following the members vote.
Our chair Paul Manning, his wife Bev and long standing Sheffield camra stalwart Alan Gibbons recently visited the Oktoberblest beer and gin festival at St Matthew’s on Carver street.
The church was built in 1855 amongst the slums of the city, is now grade 2 listed and has long been regarded as a sanctuary in the heart of the city. The church has an ambitious target to raise nearly £800,000 for interior restorations and money raised at the festival will go towards increasing the £450,000 raised to date.
The festival opened with Rt Revd Stephen Race, the bishop of Beverley blessing the beers accompanied by Fr Grant Naylor, the current vicar.
Nick Law the founder of Emmanuales gave a very illuminating talk on the brief history of beer and belief and we also enjoyed some great music whilst sampling the beers.
Nick had brought two beers – Noah’s Dark a 5.4% dark Belgian ale and Solomon’s gold a 4.5% Belgian golden ale. Both tasted great and we also tasted (mainly half’s!) of Reunion Witbier a 5% cloudy white ale from Mount St Bernard Trappist brewer in rural Leicestershire. This was followed by Juiceinator a 4.7% pale and Days of Thunder a 5% hazy pale both from Bang the Elephant brewery in Langley Mill, Derbyshire.
We ended with Santa’s Little Belter a 4.9% ginger and cinnamon dark ale from the recently closed Halton Turner brewery in Digbeth, Birmingham together with Jolly YPA a 4.8% pale from Jolly Boys brewery in Barnsley.
We enjoyed the evening and look forward to next years event as it becomes a regular on the Sheffield festival calendar.
