Category: Heritage

We were recently contacted regarding some etched windows at the Royal Standard on St. Mary’s Road. These looked the part: three glass panels across the front of the pub, each with a distinctive ‘HB’ initial. The initial suggestion was that ‘HB’ referred to the long-lost Hoosons Brewery (1865–1914). Their Park Brewery on Cricket Inn Road, along with their 31 pubs, were taken over by Ind Coope in 1914. However, the Brewery History Society states that the Royal Standard was obtained by S. H. Wards in 1876, from William Bradley. The next thought was that ‘HB’ referred to a past Landlord: the only possibility was Henry Piggott, a licensee in the 1850s and 60s.

Finally, a visit to Sheffield Archives found the solution. From 1972, until it was discontinued in 1985, the Royal Standard was subject to a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) from Sheffield City Council concerning the development of the Inner Ring Road. The file concerned with the CPO included a colour photo of the pub – no etched windows! Hence the windows were possibly late 20th century, not a relic of a by-gone age.

More research saw more recent photos and plans for a 2002 revamp (Ian Whitehead Contract Furnishing Limited for Enterprise Inns Limited) bringing changes leading to the present configuration of an opened out central area with wide spaces leading to what were originally the three separate rooms. ‘HB’ refers to The Bramwell Pub Company Limited, a subsidiary of Enterprise Inns plc. Bramwell went into administration in 2013: some pubs were sold to other operators while others, including the Royal Standard, reverted back to Enterprise Inns.

We believe the windows were installed in 2002. Thanks to Dermot Kennedy and Jamie Thompson for their assistance.

Dave Pickersgill

The Eyre Arms at Hassop is now on the CAMRA National Inventory of Pub Interiors. The building was originally a farmstead, built in 1632. By 1753, ‘Eyre Arms as a Public House at Hassop.’ In 1814, the name changed to ‘Newburg Arms Inn’ and in 1902 it returned to the Eyre Arms. The creeper covered sandstone building was subject to a good quality refit in the mid 1950s and is virtually unchanged since. A plan (Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock) dated 1952 shows a very different interior – the front entrance led into a hall and on the left was the Tap Room (now the public bar), while to the right are steps (up) and a Smoke Room. Ahead was a passage with a servery at the rear and a sitting room on the rear right. The pub was sold by the Stevensons, owners of Hassop Hall, to Stones Brewery of Sheffield in the mid 1950s who carried out a significant refurbishment creating the centrally placed servery for all three rooms. Nowadays the front door leads to a small entrance lobby with 1950s tiled floor. An oak latched door to the left has ‘Public Bar’ painted in gold and on the frame above is painted the Roman numeral ‘I’. An oak latched door on the right has gold painted lettering ‘Saloon Room’ over which a metal sign ‘Lounge’ and on the frame above is the Roman numeral ‘II’. The left small Public Bar has a carpet, stone Tudor arch-style fireplace found in pre-war pubs but appears also have been added in the 1950s, and quality high-backed fitted seating on two sides of the room. There is a quarter circle bar with a counter of wooden tongue and groove of high quality including a small linenfold section, and the bar back is of a 1950s style with adzed wood on the frame and no loss of lower shelving. The walls are of rough stone and painted white and a door at the rear leads to a short passage. There is a Roman numeral ‘I’ on the back of the door, a door on the left of the passage has the Roman numeral ‘IV’ and ‘Cellar’ painted in gold. Another door has ‘Private’ on it. Alongside is a door with ‘Gentlemen’ on it. A door on the right of the passage has the gold painted wording ‘Snug’ and ‘III’. The right hand carpeted Lounge Bar being two rooms prior to the mid 1950s has two different ceilings – higher plain one at the front and lower ‘beamed’ one in rear part. In the front part is a curved 1950s bar counter with a small linenfold section and the bar back is 1950s style with adzed wood frame. On the front right is a different style of stone fireplace to the public bar one and seen in pre-war pubs, but appears also have been added in the 1950s, and above it is a massive plaster Coat of Arms with a dull yellow-coloured ceramic (?) decorative border. The arms belong to Rowland Eyre, a Royalist officer in the Civil War. The Eyres raised a regiment in Derbyshire and fought at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. There is more adzed wood above the change in ceiling height. On the front wall side is more of the high backed fitted seating, a long case clock, and the walls are of bare stone. In the rear part are more of the high backed fitted seating on the left and right and low backed bench seating on the rear wall. An oak latched door on the front right hand side leads to the kitchen and one on the rear right leads to the ladies’ toilet. An oak latched door leads from the rear left part of the lounge to the snug at the middle rear and has the Roman numeral ‘II’ painted on it in gold. Formerly the site of the servery it is a small room with a modest counter, almost a hatch, having a 1950s frontage. There is more of the high-backed fitted seating, one low backed bench and a door leads to the passage situated at the rear left. The gents’ toilet has a red tiled floor and inter-war style cream tiled walls to picture-frame height throughout with a row of light green tiles along the bottom and top and retains the 1950s urinal with the only change being a wooden WC door added in 2016. Added in the mid-1950s it replaced the outside gents situated on the front left of the building as detailed in the 1952 plan, which also shows the ladies was also outside on the right. The ladies are situated where the 1952 plan shows was the larder and also has inter-war style cream tiled walls to picture-frame height throughout with a row of light green tiles along the bottom and top. Again, the only changes are the wooden WC doors added in 2016. Dave Pickersgill & Mick Slaughter

Carbrook Hall was purchased by a local company, West Street Leisure, from Punch Taverns in March 2017. Since then, it has been closed to the public. The pub became an Asset of Community Value (ACV) in May 2017 following a collaborative application from Sheaf Valley Heritage Group and Sheffield and District CAMRA. The last year has seen both a number of arson attempts and local press reports regarding the sale of contents from the building. In addition, all external signage (apart from the Lower Don Valley History Trails blue plaque) has been removed.

Regarding the attempted sale of artefacts, the current owner, Sean Fogg, is on record as stating: “If anyone has got any items from the pub they’ve got it without our consent“. He is also quoted as stating that there was a “misunderstanding” between him and the man advertising the goods, who had been employed to clear fire-damaged material. This historic public house with its connections with the Bright family and the siege of Sheffield Castle includes the Grade II* listed stone wing that was added about 1620. The ‘Old Oak Room’ is an oak-panelled ground floor room with vine trail plaster frieze and enriched cross beam ceiling, also with vine trail. There is also an elaborate early oak chimney-piece with Corinthian columns and allegorical figures and Latin inscription on the over mantel. The motif represents ‘Wisdom trampling upon Ignorance’.

It also has framed panelling with painted decoration and a larger stone chimney-piece with corniced mantelshelf and over mantel flanked by unusual caryatids. There is also a door with shaped fielded panels, and three late C18th. panelled doors. This description is based on visits in 2016 and early 2017. We hope that this room remains intact. We also understand that planning/listed building applications to alter and change the use of the building are likely to be submitted in the near future. The long-term survival of Carbrook Hall requires a functioning business operating on the premises. This could be a pub, or it could have another use.

However, the current situation is simply one of neglect – a Grade II* listed building with ACV status slowly rotting – this an embarrassment for the city. Dave Pickersgill

William Stones started brewing in 1847. In 1868 he purchased the lease of the Neepsend Brewery, renamed it the Cannon Brewery, and continued to brew there until his death in 1894. Stones’ success saw him die as one of the richest men in Sheffield. William Stones Ltd. was purchased by Bass Brewery in 1968.

Stones Bitter was brewed at the Cannon Brewery from 1948. It was originally available across South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with distribution extended to the rest of the north of England in 1977, and nationwide from 1979, accompanied by a considerable marketing push.

Popularity reached a peak in 1992 when it was the highest-selling bitter in the country. Following the brewery’s closure in 1999, Stones Bitter has continued to be produced at various sites by the Molson Coors Brewing Company.

Since 1999, the brewery site has become derelict. Although planning permission exists for demolition, we await redevelopments. The image above, dating from the 1980s, is of particular interest. It belongs to Duncan Shaw, manager of the Fat Cat, and appears to show a car suspended in mid-air – we would be grateful if anyone can provide more information about this photo. Dave Pickersgill

< Note: April 2020: when this message was originally posted in  2018, it was possible to download the NE PHG from the National Pub Heritage Website. However, in August 2018, this website went down and was subsequently replaced by the new one – https://pubheritage.camra.org.uk/ – the new site has more functionality than the previous site, but unfortunately, the provision for Regional Guides is not yet in place. Hence, at present it is not possible to download Regional PH Guides. > This publication, the CAMRA guide about Heritage Pubs in the North East of England, is now available as a free download. Edited by Paul Ainsworth, this ground-breaking publication aims to create an up-to-date snapshot of the North East Pub Heritage picture. For example, the Stags Head in South Shields, a Victorian pub of 1897, has an unusual feature of a two-storey arrangement of two bars one above the other – clearly a response to the narrow site. On the ground floor the entrance lobby on the left has floor to ceiling tiling and the inner door has stained glass. In the two-part public bar, the counter and bar-back are original, as is the fire-surround although the hearth and tiles seem modern; above is a stag’s head. The wide elliptical arch spanning the servery is also most unusual. Included are 40 images and detailed comment on the 44 North East pubs listed on the CAMRA Pub Heritage website. The guide is freely available from the CAMRA Pub Heritage website: pubheritage.camra.org.uk/rhp/NorthEast. Dave Pickersgill

From the outside, the Eyre Arms is a handsome creeper-covered building with a walled garden to the side. You enter this 17th-century country pub via a front door which leads to a small entrance hall. On your left is a smoke room with a quarter-circle wooden bar: wooden tongue and groove of high quality. Behind the bar are fitted shelves. This small room has fitted wooden benches around two walls and a fire place which looks pre-war. A door on the rear wall leads to the cellar (to the left), the gents and, to the right, is a small snug. From the entrance, on your right is a rectangular lounge which leads back into what was originally a sitting room. The central bar is opposite a massive coat of arms displayed on the wall above the fireplace. A wooden door leads left into the small snug, with views to the rear of the building. A further door leads to a corridor, the gents and the public bar. On the wall, a framed list of past licences goes back to 1753. The entrance form the hall to the lounge displays a fixed sign above the original words of ‘Smoke Room.’ A 1952 plan (Gerald Maynard & Co. D5328/21/3(i), Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock) shows the front entrance into a hall. On the left is a Tap Room (now the smoke room), while to the right are steps (up) and a Smoke Room. Ahead is a passage which runs the length of the two forward rooms with a bar counter ahead. The cellar is to the left of the bar, with a sitting room to the right. Further right are a Larder and Living Room. The current layout and the 1952 plan suggest a mid-1950s refit which merged the two right rooms into a single lounge with the bar moving forward to its current central position and the snug taking the place of the bar counter and bar area. We believe there have been no major changes since the mid-1950s. Apparently local craftsmen were used to do the work: stonemason for the fireplaces and carpenter for the bar front and wood panelling. Relatives of these craftsmen are still pub regulars. The pub sign shows the Eyre family coat of arms. The arms on the wall of the lounge belong to Rowland Eyre, a Royalist officer in the Civil War. The Eyres raised a regiment in Derbyshire and fought at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. The centrepiece is a solitary leg. Apparently, at the Battle of Hastings (1066), William the Conqueror was knocked from his horse. He was assisted by a soldier called Truelove who loosened the Kings’ helmet as his nose-plate was crushing his face. William then said “thou hast given me the air that I breathe – henceforth you will be known as Air (Eyr)”. Later in the battle, the King discovered that Truelove (Eyr) had to have a leg amputated. William told him that when he was recovered, he would give him some land. The soldier replied, ‘I shall call it Hope, for you have given me hope to live.’ There are two problems with this story: the Norman soldiers did not wear helmets of this type, and Truelove was an Anglo-Saxon name, not Norman. The building was originally a farmstead, built in 1632. By 1753, ‘Eyre Arms as a Public House at Hassop.’ In 1814, the name changed to ‘Newburg Arms Inn’ and in 1902, it returned to the Eyre Arms. The pub has recently been proposed as a new entry on the CAMRA National Inventory of Pub Interiors. Dave Pickersgill

Many of our readers will by now have seen the Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs e-book, which was released during the Steel City Beer and Cider Festival last October and at the time of writing, is on the cusp of reaching 50,000 downloads! Talks with local sponsors and publishers regarding a physical copy of the book are still ongoing. Following on from the success of this book, the next instalment in the series of Real Heritage Pubs books has been released. East Anglia’s Real Heritage Pubs: Pub Interiors of Historic Interest is now available as a free download at pubheritage.camra.org.uk/rhp/EastAnglia. < Note: April 2020 :  when this message was originally posted in March 2018, it was possible to download the EA PHG from the National Pub Heritage Website. However, in August 2018, this website went down and was subsequently replaced by the new one – https://pubheritage.camra.org.uk/ – the new site has more functionality than the previous site, but unfortunately, the provision for Regional Guides is not yet in place. Hence, at present it is not possible to download Regional PH Guides. >  Edited by Paul Ainsworth, chair of the CAMRA National Pub Heritage Group, this ground-breaking publication aims to create an up-to-date snapshot of the East Anglian Pub Heritage picture. Paul said: “Over the past 25 years, CAMRA has developed its national and regional inventories of historic pub interiors. These highlight the crème de la crème of interiors which have either escaped much alteration for many years or contain features of exceptional interest. ” For example, the Cock in Broom is one of only ten remaining examples in the country of pubs with no bar counter. Included are over 60 images and detailed comment on the 120 East Anglian pubs listed on the CAMRA Pub Heritage website. The guide is freely available from the CAMRA Pub Heritage website. Grateful thanks are given to numerous individuals, the National CAMRA Pub Heritage Group and local Archives, the latter for providing access to unique historic documentation.