Category: Awards

As always, it is a pleasure to reveal our Pub of the Month award winner for November. This month’s recipient is the Railway Hotel on Bramall Lane, a first-time winner of the accolade. Taken over and comprehensively refurbished by Jack Cater and his family in 2015, the Railway has shed its former identity as a “football pub” and established a reputation for serving a good selection of real ales at reasonable prices in friendly and relaxing surroundings. On the pumps, you will find five rotating cask beers, often showcasing local breweries such as Abbeydale, Kelham Island and Acorn. CAMRA members receive a very generous discount of 30p per pint. Draught cider is also available, along with a range of bottled world beers. A pub quiz is held every Thursday evening. The pub was nominated for the award by Sheffield & District CAMRA’s social media co-ordinator, Poppy Hayhurst: “I had recently relocated to Sheffield and at first found it difficult to orientate myself in the city. On one Monday afternoon on my way back from doing my shopping I got completely lost and being laden with multiple bags tried to find somewhere where I could sit, take a breath and work out where I was! That was the first time I visited the Railway Hotel. Perhaps unsurprisingly at 4pm on a Monday afternoon I was the only person in the pub, but still the barman was really welcoming and sensing my struggle directed me to the outdoor sitting area where he swiftly brought me my pint. It wasn’t until the Beer Census I got the opportunity to revisit the pub, this time on a Saturday afternoon. A few of my friends didn’t share my enthusiasm assuming it would be full of football fans being so close to Bramall Lane, but they all left the pub in agreement that future visits would definitely be on the cards. With a good and varied selection of real ales, kegs and bottles; free retro arcade games; one of the best beer gardens I have been to in Sheffield and a CAMRA discount on all pints of real ale this unassuming little pub really does for me offer it all.” We will be heading to the Railway Hotel to present the award on Tuesday 14 November, arriving from about 8:30pm for a presentation around 9pm. Buses 18, 19 and 252 all stop on Bramall Lane, about 100 metres from the pub. Our Pub of the Month award is voted for by CAMRA members and aims to recognise those pubs around Sheffield that consistently serve quality real ale in a welcoming environment. You can vote or nominate a pub for the award at any branch meeting, or via our website at sheffield.camra.org.uk/potm/vote. Dominic Nelson

Sheffield & District CAMRA are delighted to announce that the winner of the Pub of the Month award for October 2017 is the Itchy Pig Ale House in Broomhill. The Itchy Pig opened its doors in July 2016, taking over a unit formerly occupied by a gift shop, and in the first year of business owner Ted Finlay and his team have developed a reputation for serving excellent ales in a friendly and relaxing environment. There are five handpumps, featuring a range of beers from local breweries such as Abbeydale, Blue Bee and Brew Foundation. Earlier this year, they teamed up with Exit 33 Brewing to produce their very own real ale, StyPA. Ciders and craft keg, canned and bottled beers are also available. Pub regular Andrew Senior, who nominated the Itchy Pig for the award, said: “I used to work very close to the pub and so I started popping in after work. Despite the landlord, Ted, being a southener and preferring Rugby Union to League, he is a very welcoming and friendly host.” “The beer is always well kept, there’s a good range of pig-based bar snacks, and now even pig-themed board games (Pass the Pigs and backgammon). All in all it makes it a very enjoyable place to have a pint.” We are heading to the Itchy Pig to present Ted and the team with their certificate on Tuesday 10 October from 8pm onwards, and everyone is welcome to come and join us for a celebratory pint. The pub can be found at 495 Glossop Road, Sheffield, S10 2QE. Buses 10, 10a and 120 all stop on Glossop Road, and buses 51 and 52 also call nearby. CAMRA members, don’t forget to vote for your next pub of the month! This can be done either through our website at sheffield.camra.org.uk/potm/vote or at any branch meeting. Dominic Nelson

I moved to Kelham Island, Sheffield in November 2011 after a little over 10 years of residence in the fine city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Now, a period of that magnitude does not pass without the establishment of some routines, one of which got the weekend off to an early start with a few pints, a pub quiz and a game of darts at my favourite haunt (The Bodega, Westgate Road). Of course, moving to a new city involves no small amount of upheaval in one’s life, upheaval that I intended to mitigate by the transference of my Thursday routine. So, I sallied forth from my new flat to investigate the numerous new local pubs with some key questions in mind, namely: Is this pub inundated with cask beer? Is there a weekly quiz? Is said quiz on a Thursday? Is there also a dartboard? To my joy I discovered that there was indeed a place that could answer ‘yes’ to all of these questions and the name of that place was Shakespeare’s. Of course, my Thursday quizzing meant that I was a frequent enough visitor to the pub to get acquainted with staff and regulars alike. Indeed, before long I had regained the sense of a genuine pub community that I had, perforce, left behind at The Bodega in Newcastle. Over six years and one ‘Sheffield CAMRA Pub of the Year’ (2013) later, Shakespeare’s is still a public house par excellence, and while it is true that pale ales tend to preponderate amidst the forest of beer engines, variety is also guaranteed with permanent provision of at least one stout or porter, in addition to half a dozen (sometimes more) craft keg beers, the corollary of which is no shortage of sours and imperial stouts, but also a phantasmagoria of IPAs, DIPAs and SIPAs. It’s little wonder that the pub sees such a steady stream of beer tickers flowing through its doors. Beers aside (heaven forefend!), the games foundation of darts has been built upon to include an upstairs games room with bar skittles, bar billiards, table football, board games and a Yorkshire dart board. Upstairs also is their spacious function room which is put to good use hosting gigs, dancing, meetings and parties of all sorts. Of course, staff and regulars have come and gone since the Winter of 2011, but that ineffable sense of pub community has remained untarnished (indeed it is far from unusual to find that staff who move on to work elsewhere are merely transformed from bar workers into regular patrons). Manager Chris and his splendid outfit of beer connoisseurs are more than capable of helping the discerning drinker with their painstaking ‘which next?’ decision. All in all, Shakespeare’s is most worthy ‘Pub of the Month’; a fine place for fine ale served by fine folk in the company of fine people. Patrick Johnson