A busy week of presentations kicked off with the presentation of our the Sheffield & District CAMRA Club of the Year award to the Interval Café Bar on Saturday 5 May. The handover of the certificate had been timed to coincide with the annual University of Sheffield Students’ Union Beer Festival which took place over the May Day bank holiday weekend, and festival-goers were treated to some fabulously sunny weather along with an excellent range of beers and ciders.
Andy Shaw (left) hands over the Club of the Year award to Interval manager Richard Jourdain. Credit: John Beardshaw.
From the selection of bars located in the Students’ Union, Interval is the one with the most focus on real ale, with seven handpumps available. It is open to non-students during the day and also offers a good range of food.
Our Clubs Officer, Andy Shaw, made the presentation to Interval manager Richard Jourdain on behalf of the branch. In his speech, Andy recognised the contribution that Interval makes in promoting quality real ale to the student community and congratulated Richard and his team on their well-deserved award. We would like to say well done once again to everyone at Interval for their success!
We might have just announced all our annual winners but that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about our Pub of the Month competition. This month’s winner, voted for as always by Sheffield & District CAMRA branch members, is a pub that has been a permanent fixture on London Road since the 1780s: the White Lion. The pub last won this award in October 2016 and since then the standards have remained exceptionally high, making them worthy winners yet again.
This historic hostelry has a rich past, but current landlords Jon Terry and Mandy Billings have brought the pub into the 21st century while remaining respectful of its history. In December 2017, they were named the best landlords in the Yorkshire and the Humber region by Punch Taverns, while in 2015 the White Lion was declared the best live music pub in the county. The building itself is Grade II listed and is included on CAMRA’s Yorkshire Regional Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, recognising its sympathetic refurbishments over the years. The entrance corridor was recently the cover star of the hugely popular Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs e-book. Meanwhile, the pub’s position as a community hub was confirmed in November 2016 when it attained Asset of Community Value status.
On the beer front, there are four regular cask ales on offer, with a mixture of local and national breweries featured. Abbeydale Moonshine is always available, while the house beer, Lion’s Main, is brewed by Kelham Island. Wychwood Hobgoblin and Tetley Bitter are also regulars on the pumps. Additionally, there are up to eight changing guest beers which often include an interesting range of styles such as stouts and IPAs.
We will be presenting the award to the White Lion on Tuesday 8 May, arriving from 8pm onwards for a presentation around 9pm. The pub is located at 615 London Road, S2 4HT, and is well-served by buses (routes 10, 20, 24, 25, 43, 44, X17 all stop nearby). We hope you can join us!
Dominic Nelson
The second Tuesday of the month means it’s time for our Pub of the Month presentation and April’s award took us somewhere a little off the beaten track. For many of us, this was our first visit to the Ale House on Fraser Road, tucked away between Millhouses and Woodseats, but on this evidence it certainly won’t be the last!
Locals and regulars who nominated the Ale House for the award turned out in their dozens to join CAMRA members for an evening of celebration. The atmosphere was jovial as landlady Sue Fawcett was presented with the certificate by vice-chairman Patrick Johnson. There was a real sense of camaraderie at this community pub, where many of the staff work voluntarily out of love for the place.
Left to right: Ellen Graveling, Val Avil, Chris Avil, Patrick Johnson, Sue Fawcett and Kay Smith.
On the six handpumps was an excellent range of mostly regional cask ales, with Saltaire, Dancing Duck and Brass Castle all appearing alongside Cornwall’s Harbour and Sussex’s Dark Star. A selection of sandwiches was also provided, which as always were very much appreciated.
Congratulations once again to Sue and all the staff and regulars at the Ale House on their award!
Dominic Nelson
It will come as no surprise to many that the winner of our Pub of the Year award for 2018, as voted for by branch members, is the Kelham Island Tavern on Russell Street.
The pub was previously known as the White Hart and until Trevor and Lewis opened it in its current guise back in 2002 it was closed, boarded up, and in danger of becoming derelict. The pub proved popular from day one and an extension was built at the rear to cope as well as the yard outside being developed into a pleasant beer garden.
The pub serves three regular beers – Acorn Barnsley Bitter, Pictish Brewers Gold and Bradfield Farmers Blonde – and up to ten changing guest ales on handpump. The range covers a variety of beer styles with a dark beer (stout or porter) and a mild always available. A cider and perry is also available and on the keg lines there are various continental beer styles, plus a range of malt whiskies.
A simple food menu is served at lunchtimes from 12-3pm every day except Sunday. Outside these hours there are often sandwiches and pork pies available. The bar is open from midday until midnight daily.
The Kelham hosts their annual beer & cider festival at midsummer when an outside bar pops up in the beer garden. The pub also takes part in the folk music session festival spread across a number of venues over the Easter weekend. The rest of the year folk and other musicians gather in the back room to play most Sunday evenings. There is also a weekly quiz on Mondays.
Part of the ongoing success of the Kelham including its many awards has been due to maintaining high standards. The beers are always well kept, reasonably priced and served by friendly staff into oversized lined glasses to ensure a full measure, the pub is always kept clean and tidy (they are also proud of their 5* food hygiene rating!) and customers are encouraged to keep their language civilised (if you have to swear, please drink elsewhere!).
Although the standards and principles that the Kelham is run by hasn’t changed in the 15 years, this doesn’t mean there has been no innovation – there is now an extra keg line serving modern UK craft beers and bottled gluten free beer is available.
We’ll be presenting the award certificate to the Kelham Island Tavern at 3pm on Saturday 12 May, so please come and join us for what is sure to be an enjoyable afternoon!
The Red Lion is the village pub in Litton, near Tideswell. It is a traditional stone building nestling on the village green offering a choice of cosy corners off a central passageway with a fireplace at the heart of the pub. The pub’s role as the village local has been recognised by Derbyshire Dales Council by listing it as an Asset of Community Value.
The pub dates back to 1787 when it was converted from three miners’ cottages and, as with many good country pubs, there is a pub dog – Humphrey, a black Labrador. The pub also offers bed and breakfast accommodation with two rooms available upstairs if you want to use the pub as a base for a few days visiting the Peak District.
The pub kitchen is open with the chef serving fresh food every day – Sunday 12-8pm, Monday-Thursday 12-3pm and 6-9pm, then Friday and Saturday 12-9pm. The Red Lion isn’t a big pub so it is advisable to book a table in advance if you plan to eat.
On the bar there are four real ales offered including two regular LocAles – Abbeydale Absolution and Peak Ales Bakewell Best Bitter – and two changing guests. The beer quality is Cask Marque accredited and you can find out what beers are currently available and which are coming soon by visiting the pub’s website – theredlionlitton.co.uk.
We will be running a minibus trip out to the Red Lion to present the award certificate; the date will be announced soon once the arrangements have been made.
It is with great pleasure we can reveal that the Interval Cafe Bar has been awarded Sheffield & District CAMRA Club of the Year for 2018.
The University of Sheffield Students’ Union sits between Western Bank and Glossop Road and is a whole complex offering a raft of facilities for students including shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, nightclub, music venue and even a cinema.
One of the venues within the building is Interval, a modern cafe-bar that opens out onto the Union Beer Garden. Of the Students’ Union bars, this is the one that is geared more towards quality and sophistication than the others. A relaxed atmosphere is offered and during the daytime customers can be seen enjoying sandwiches, cakes, coffee and conversation, while in the evening they may be attending a special event and enjoying beer and pizza or one of the other meals or snacks offered (food is served until 9pm).
Interval isn’t the only bar in the Student Union that offers real ale (there are handpumps in Bar One, for example), but it is the one that makes the most effort to provide and promote good beer. Seven handpumps can be found on the bar serving real ale and real cider with local favourite Abbeydale Moonshine being the regular house ale and a changing range of guest ales alongside it.
Interval supports the University of Sheffield Real Ale & Cider Society who meet there for their social events and is also involved with the annual Students’ Union Beer & Cider Festival. This sees around 100 different real ales, ciders, perries and craft beers on offer across the Raynor Lounge, Union Beer Garden and Interval, plus food and music. The festival takes place over the May Day bank holiday weekend from Friday to Sunday and is open to the public.
Our Clubs Officer will be presenting the award certificate to Interval manager Richard Jourdain on the Saturday of the festival (5 May) at around 4pm, and you are more than welcome to come and show some support and enjoy the festival!
Sheffield & District CAMRA is delighted to announce that its Cider Pub of the Year award for 2018 goes to the Clubhouse on London Road.
The Clubhouse is a sports bar housed within a fairly traditional pub building and can get very busy when there is a big game being shown on TV or when Sheffield United play at home. While it ticks the boxes for a good sports bar (TV screens, pool table, burgers etc) and beer (range of reasonably priced real ales) it is cider for which we are presenting them with an award.
Although many would argue Sheffield might be the real ale capital of the UK, it certainly isn’t known for proper cider – either making it or drinking it – and there are very few pubs in the city that make the effort with cider and perry to offer a varied range and promote them. There are of course some honourable exceptions, including the Harlequin which won last year’s award.
The Clubhouse dedicates three handpumps to cider, and the selection changes regularly so there is often something new to try. There are quite a number of cider drinkers among their regular customers and sometimes what appears on the pumps has been one of their requests!
Aside from the cider, the Clubhouse has a good atmosphere helped by friendly staff and a food menu is served featuring a number of pub classics, but the headline act here is the range of burgers with various toppings and served with home made chips. Occasionally a promotion is run offering a free pint with your burger, watch their Facebook page for news on that!
Note that for the very busy sporting events the management may limit numbers coming in the pub to maintain a pleasant environment. At these times priority is given to regulars who have obtained a ticket in advance from the bar.
Our branch Cider Champion Sarah Mills will be presenting the winner’s certificate at the Clubhouse on Thursday 10 May. All are welcome to come along and join us from 8pm onwards to show support and enjoy what the pub has to offer!
A positive part of CAMRA’s campaigning is to celebrate the best pubs you can enjoy a quality pint of real ale and that is what our awards are there for. Here in Sheffield & District branch we run a Pub of the Month award throughout the year, supplemented by the District Pub of the Season award for our Derbyshire pubs. We also choose the best pubs in the area to be awarded a place in the national Good Beer Guide, a book published annually.
At the end of the year, all those pubs that have won an award or a Good Beer Guide listing are entered into our Pub of the Year competition. This sees all our branch members invited to vote for which pubs they think are the best by ranking their top 10 out of the 42 pubs in the competition.
The voting process produces a shortlist of 10, a mixture of Sheffield and Derbyshire pubs, which a team of judges each independently visit and scores them against CAMRA’s national judging criteria, which is primarily about beer quality but also takes into account style, décor, furnishing and cleanliness; service, welcome & offering; community focus and atmosphere; alignment with CAMRA principles; and overall impression.
We give two pub of the year awards, one for a pub in Sheffield that then goes forward into the Yorkshire competition and one for ‘District’ that goes forward into the North Derbyshire competition, both of which are preliminary rounds of the national competition.
We have two additional annual awards which select a venue to be entered into national competitions – Cider Pub of the Year and Club of the Year. The former sees our cider champion Sarah Mills produce a list of pubs in the area that offer and promote a range of real cider and perry (real being a natural product made from little more than fresh apple or pear juice that has been fermented) to drink in an enjoyable environment and a vote is taken by members attending a branch meeting.
The Club of the Year is for venues that are generally members only and not necessarily open to the general public to the same level as a pub such as social clubs, students’ unions, sports clubs etc. A shortlist of clubs in our area that serve and promote a range of real ales is produced by our Clubs Officer, Andy Shaw, and a vote is taken by members at a branch meeting.
Regular readers will know that each month we try to recognise one pub in our branch area that follows CAMRA’s principles of serving high quality real ale and cider in welcoming and friendly surroundings. Every Pub of the Month is voted for by our branch members, and with voting having been so popular recently we have had a backlog of pubs waiting to receive their awards. Therefore, we have known for a couple of months now that our Pub of the Month winner for April 2018 would be a first-time winner of the accolade.
The Ale House, tucked away on Fraser Road in between Millhouses and Woodseats, is a thriving community-run pub with a consistenly good range of reasonably priced real ale. There are up to six cask lines on offer at any time, the regular Saltaire Blonde plus five guest ales. These often feature small breweries from around Yorkshire and the East Midlands, such as Malton’s Bad Seed and Derby’s Dancing Duck.
Being a community pub there are regular events taking place, including live music and singing nights, a pub quiz on Thursday evenings and home-cooked food available from 6pm every Friday.
We will be visiting the Ale House to present the award on Tuesday 10 April and all are welcome to join us. As usual, we will be arriving from around 8pm for a presentation around 9pm. For those travelling by public transport, the number 86 stops on Archer Road, around 150 yards from the pub. We hope to see you there!
Dominic Nelson
Our March Pub of the Month presentation took place at the Rutland Arms on Tuesday 13 March and was a well attended and enjoyable evening. As always, there was an excellent range of real ales available, with a variety of styles including bitters, pales and even a mild!
As the presentation took place during Sheffield Beer Week, it coincided with a tap takeover featuring Norwegian craft brewers Haandbryggeriet for those who wanted to try something a little different.
Outgoing social secretary Patrick Johnson made what could be his last Pub of the Month presentation to pub manager Heather Griffin, and afterwards we were treated to a range of free sandwiches, which were very much appreciated.
Congratulations once again to owners Kate and Chris, managers Heather and Pete and all the Rutland staff on their award.
Outgoing social secretary Patrick Johnson made what could be his last Pub of the Month presentation to pub manager Heather Griffin, and afterwards we were treated to a range of free sandwiches, which were very much appreciated.
Congratulations once again to owners Kate and Chris, managers Heather and Pete and all the Rutland staff on their award.