Category: Awards

The Dog & Partridge (56 Trippet Lane, S1 4EL) has been voted as CAMRA Sheffield & District Pub of the Month March 2023.

This pub which dates back to 1796 has a unique frontage including the pub name and “Gilmours Windsor Ales & Stouts”. It also has some modern wall graffiti art outside on Bailey Street.

It compromises of four different rooms each with some original and unique features including real fireplaces in both the snug and rear room. The snug is largely unaltered retaining features including bell pushes from their table service days together with the original door and fixed seating.

The central bar has a range of cask and keg beers – four rotating cask beers often include offerings from Stancil, Abbeydale and other local breweries including a stout. 

Conor who took over as landlord in 2012 has recently become free of any brewery ties. This popular pub has regular events including a weekly quiz, weekly folk evening and shows major sport events on the TV screens.  

Congratulations to all involved with the Dog and Partridge including Conor and his team. The pub of the month award presentation is planned for the evening of Tuesday 14 March and all are welcome to join the celebration and perhaps enjoy the usual pub quiz from 7pm beforehand.  

The Church House (4 James Street, S1 2EW) has been voted as CAMRA Sheffield & District Pub of the Month for November 2022.

This historic pub is in a Grade II listed building built in a gothic revival style on the site of an old vicarage in 1859. It had a number of uses for the first hundred years including a cookery department, a choir boys school and a home for squatters!

In 1987 it opened as a pub called Gladstones and has also been the Ferret and Trouserleg, the Priory and the Sanctuary. Star Pubs & Bars bought the pub in 2012 and it then changed to its current name. 

It normally has four cask ales on tap including from Robinsons, Bradfield and Titanic. The pub has a thriving and popular live music scene and in partnership with Honey Bees Blues club holds regular music nights featuring many local bands.

Congratulations to all involved with the Church House including the pub manager Andrew Delemere and his team. The award presentation is planned for the evening of Tuesday 8 November and all are welcome to join the celebration.  

Well here we are again, for the third time in as many months a pub I nominated for Pub of the Month has won – if any publicans wish to avail of this service my rates are very reasonable… 😉

As a big fan of the Rutland Arms (see Beer Matters 515) I had high hopes when Chris and Kate told me they were looking for a second pub. After exploring a couple of options they were successful in securing the former Crown Inn on Scotland St (more recently known as Sleep Hotel and before that a nightclub), in partnership with Sheffield pub legend Wendy Woodhouse, who previously reopened the Harlequin (the former Manchester Hotel) and later worked behind the bar at Shakespeares. The slightly shortened Crow Inn name comes from Kate and Chris being in no way monarchists, plus an incident some may remember at the Rutland where opening for the day was delayed by the ingress of a large crow. There does however remain a large Crown Inn sign embossed into the external brickwork and a mosaic floor inside the main entrance. The pub itself was built in the 19^th century and has been the scene for Chartist plots as well as assassinations.

The pub has a traditional two-room layout, and is decorated with paintings of various members of the corvus family. The bar features five handpumps including one permanent beer from Abbeydale and four ever-changing guests, while six permanent keg lines are matched by eight guests from UK and beyond. Regular beer events are held such as tap takeovers and meet-the-brewers, and have included hosting Cantillon Zwanze Day, a Tilquin takeover and a Yonder meet-the-brewer. There is also a selection of cans and bottles in the fridge, an extensive range of malt whiskies and bourbons, a selection of ports and wines, as well as plenty of rums and gins. There is no kitchen but food is served in the form of Kevin’s Pies along with the usual (and sometimes unusual!) bar snacks.

As part of the refurbishment the bedrooms were also refitted, all being converted to en-suite as well as comfortable new beds – living in Sheffield I’ve not yet had cause to stay but friends who have speak highly of them. It is of course the ideal place to stay for a beery visit, with the Shakespeares and Bar Stewards round the corner and Kelham Island within a few minutes’ walk. 

Dave Unpronounceable

Presentation is on Thursday 3 November, join us there for a beer from 8pm.

Join us for the presentation night on Wednesday 21 September. Starts at 8pm, presentation at 9pm, and a promise of plentiful free food and a special live performance.

The Victoria Quays area of Sheffield had always been an interesting and historical area of the city, but lacking anything that would bring visitors on a regular basis. That all changed in 2017 when Richard Henderson and Simon Stevenson opened the Dorothy Pax bar in one of the archways. Originally a railway bridge built in 1820, and at one time a dental practice, the archway looked out on to the terminal basin of the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal and seemed the ideal spot for Richard and Simon to fulfil their long-held desire to open a bar and live music venue. 

The bar’s name comes from the last ever Sheffield Keel that used to work on the Sheffield navigation, scuppered in the 1950s, part of which was used to create the distinctive bar top. 

From the outset, the Dorothy Pax has been keen to offer beers from local breweries, and regularly feature the likes of Blue Bee, Abbeydale, Triple Point and Neepsend amongst others. With seven handpumps and nine keglines on the bar there’s always a decent pint on offer.

There is also a staggering amount of live music to be enjoyed, including plenty of gigs in conjunction with the Honey Bee Blues Club, brainchild of local music legend Martin Bedford. In previous years the Canal Lines festival, as part of the Tramlines fringe, has been hugely successful, branching out this year to become ‘Pax In The Park’ at Heeley People’s Park. This commitment to live music has led to them branching out further afield to organise the Shady Grove festival in Eckington. 

Regular visitors will have no doubt seen the regular appearance of the Pax Disco Cape, a surprisingly heavy collection of tassles and baubles in keeping with the words ‘disco’ and ‘cape’ which apparently you are entitled to wear on your birthday! And of course, everyone’s favourite, the Pax Cat, an abandoned black cat who has been given a home by Richard and Simon, and endless amounts of affection from just about everyone who calls in. 

But what really makes the Dorothy Pax somewhere special, is the overall atmosphere of the place. And that’s not just the location, unique though it is, but the vast range of music and arts events, and more importantly the people, both staff and regulars, who make it one of the most inclusive venues in the city.  

If you’ve never been, do yourself a favour and come along to the presentation night to see what you’re missing. There really isn’t anywhere like it in the city.  

When I started going to the Rutland it was under the old Reet Ale Pubs management, and was renowned for good beer, great food and legendary parties. When it was taken over five years ago (where did that time go?) by Chris (previously manager of last month’s PotM, Shakespeares) and Kate (previously manager of Three Tuns) not much changed apart from the beer went up a notch, in fact several notches. Two house cask beers are from the local Blue Bee brewery, with a further five handpumps featuring an ever-changing range, always including something dark and often including something slightly (or seriously!) unusual. Keg-wise, the house pale is a rotating Kernel tap dispensing whatever is new and pale from the brewery who started the infamous ‘Bermondsey Mile’, while up to eight more craft taps have a wide range of styles, including dedicated lines for sours and imperial stouts. Cider is not forgotten, with one draught and two regularly changing handpumps dedicated to all things apple (and often pear). Regular tap takeover and meet the brewer events are held, recently including Holy Goat from Dundee and Brewski from Sweden. Following their success with the Rutland, in 2019 Chris and Kate opened a second pub, former PotM winner the Crow Inn on Scotland St, which features a similarly top notch craft beer range as well as seven comfortable ensuite bedrooms.

As well as one of the best beer ranges in Sheffield, there is also an excellent spirit range including a wide array of single malt whiskies and a good selection of rums. As previously mentioned, the food is very high standard, especially the ever-changing specials board, and always includes vegetarian and vegan options. There is also a jukebox with an eclectic selection of music, over which stands a blackboard of ‘recommended music’ and ‘forbidden music’, both regularly updated but the latter quite rightly permanently including Morrissey.

The Rutland was built, in 1936, on the site of a previous pub built in 1902. It has since been opened up with the removal of internal walls. However, it is possible to see the layout of the 1936 pub, with the tap room and servery on the left and the lounge on the right (from Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs by Dave Pickersgill, available from Sheffield CAMRA). The pub is decorated with a mix of pumpclips on the walls and ceiling plus a miscellany of props dotted around. Outside is a smallish garden, usually offering a choice of sun (subject to availability, this is Britain after all…) and shade.

Dave Szwejkowski

The presentation will take place on the evening of Thursday 18 August, all are welcome to join us from 8pm for a beer or two!