Category: Inn Brief

Following on from this years amazing Three Valleys festival, this bank holiday weekend the Dronfield Arms will be hosting its second annual August bank holiday beer fest, with a bouncy castle and childrens entertainment throughout the day, and live music all evening, along with great food from Proove pizza and amazing ales from Hopjacker. Stancill Brewery now have a pub to call their brewery tap! The Horse & Jockey at 250 Wadsley Lane, near Hillsborough (on bus routes 57,61 and 62) is now theirs and following a refurbishment has 10 handpumps showcasing their range of cask beers. A discount is currently available for CAMRA members. You can also try the Stancill lager and gin here too! The grand opening party is on 29th July from 4pm and will feature live music and a food stall from Nether Edge Pizza. The Anchor near Tideswell is now part of Rick Ellison’s group of Peak District pubs, which includes the Old Hall Hotel in Hope and the Peak Inn at Castleton. Those that are a regular at the Old Hall will know Pascal who is moving to the Anchor to manage the pub for Rick. The theme will be ‘rum and steak house’ with as that suggests an extended choice of rums and a food menu that is focused mainly on steaks – however it will otherwise still operate as a cosy country cottage type pub with a selection of real ales.

Another Sheffield micropub is on the way with work now started fitting out a shop unit on Glossop Road in Broomhill that was previously occupied by a gift shop called Knowle’s Emporium and soon to be known as Itchy Pig Ale House. The Noah’s Ark in Crookes now once again sells real ale. A minor refit including adjustments to the bar set up has taken place at the Banner Cross. Stocksbridge Rugby Club held their first beer festival on the 18th June. The Wellington at Shalesmoor tram stop has now been sold to James Birkett’s Sheaf Inns putting it in the great company of the Sheaf View (Heeley) and Blake Hotel (Walkley). At the time of going to press it is expected the pub will be closed for about 6 weeks for ‘a bit of a tidy up’ before reopening under the new management. Planning permission has been refused by North East Derbyshire District Council to demolish The Hearty Oak at Dronfield Woodhouse and build 8 houses on the site on the basis that the council considers that many houses on the site is unacceptable. There is an assumption locally that a revised application for 6 houses will now be submitted. Chef Cary Brown has moved on from the Royal Oak at Millthorpe and is now running the Devonshire Arms at Middle Handley. Former Sheffield Star food reviewer Martin Dawes, who is now retired but still writes a blog, visited and Cary explained to him “the Concept is simple, It’s a pub. It’s a bit posh but it’s not a gastro-pub. It serves proper food. Don’t panic you might get swirls or flecks or foams. You won’t. It tastes good. No pressure if you don’t want to eat but that bloke at the bar just came in for a pint and weakened at the thought of a lobster roll. You pay for your food and drink when you order and don’t ask for a tab. In the past it was a pub with a restaurant. We want to get it back to being a pub again with drinkers in. Nice drinkers – imagine that, people drinking in a pub! –eating pork scratchings.”

The New Barrack Tavern is holding a charity weekend in aid of the Childrens’ hospital from 10th to 12th June, this features a busy programme of live music plus of course beer and food as usual. Sentinel Brewhouse & Bar is now open for beer and food, shortly after this issue of Beer Matters hits the streets the official launch is planned which will see the first beers brewed on the premises available. The Ball Inn at Crookes has had a refurbishment and now carries an even bigger range of real ales! The Shepley Spitfire at Totley has a new manager. Hop Hideout on Abbeydale Road will be hosting a Cloudwater meet the brewer on 30th June (advance tickets required) and a festival of sour beers over August bank holiday weekend. They also anticipate their garden area being complete for then! Saxbob is hosting another live music night at the University Drama Studio with a real ale bar available, this time featuring Dale Storr on the 24th June. Tickets £10 from wegottickets.com. The Fox & Duck at Broomhill has now gone free of tie from the pub company and like sister pub the Doctors Orders is featuring beer from Little Critters Brewery, which is run by the same people as the pubs. A discount is available on these beers before 7pm. The Place at Broomhill is reported to be offering a discounted price of £2.50 a pint on Tuesdays. The Swim Inn on Glossop Road is now run by Hawthorne Leisure, having been sold by Wetherspoons. The Bath Hotel is opening on Sundays once a month (first Sunday of the month) for live music sessions.

The Milestone at Crystal Peaks is under the new management of Karlos Seery, who previously ran the Boundary in South Normanton. This Marstons pub has been refurbished, serves good value food and a range of real ales. There is also regular live music with bands on a Saturday night and a jam night on Wednesdays. The pub is located alongside Crystal Peaks bus station and just a few minutes walk from the tram stop. The Ball Inn at Crookes is to close for 10 days in May for a refurbishment. The Riverside on Mowbray Street, which is now owned by True North Brewery, closed briefly for a refurbishment. This also saw the end of the Twisted Burger franchise there with a new food offering in its place. At the time of writing it was a temporary reduced menu of pies and snacks with the proper menu about to be launched – see their new website for the latest – www.riversidesheffield.co.uk. For those missing Twisted Burger at the Riverside you can still get you fix up at the Harley, where a new menu has recently been launched.

The Three Valleys Festival takes place on Saturday 4th June with 17 venues all holding mini beer festivals and a free bus service from Dronfield railway station calling at all the venues every 15-30 minutes. You can hop on and off to try the different beers, food and entertainment offered by each venue. The buses operate from midday until 9pm. Here is the latest news on the plans of each venue. Barlow Brewery, Barlow Live music, Brewery bar, Sausage sandwiches and burgers by Moss Valley Fine Meats Dronfield Arms, Dronfield 4 bars will be in operation on festival day with a total of 25 real ales and 7 craft keg beers: pub bar: 7 cask ales and 3 craft keg beers; Decking bar: 6 cask ales; Gravity bar: 12; cask ales; Caravan bar: 4 craft keg beers. There will also be food, live music throughout the afternoon, a disco in the evening and an auction. Horse & Jockey, Unstone Live music throughout the afternoon and evening, food and beer. Manor House Hotel, Dronfield MUSIC from the superb Sam Wain Piano: Rock n roll, boogie-woogie & Jazz. Starting at 4pm & playing all day til 8.30! (with a few breaks!). BEER: in association with Abbeydale Brewery, a real ale marquee serving ONLY cask ale. Our 8 selections will be posted in due course. Our main bar inside is open as per normal. FOOD: Once again the ‘I ❤ Ostrich’ guys will be serving their quality street food… Special hotel room rates available for festival goers, however book early as they tend to fill up quickly! Miners Arms, Hundall As Dronfield CAMRA Pub of the Year 2016 & Cider Pub of the Year 2015 you can expect an amazing range of beers & real ciders at the Miners! Our inside bar will be taken over by the legendary Pictish Brewery, Rochdale. Outside you will find at least 20 real ciders, Perry & fruit ciders – plus 15-20 (tbc) Gravity real ales from breweries such as: Titanic, Arbor, Saltaire, Drone Valley, Siren to name a few! Food will once again be provided by Delilicious, Dronfield with their fabulous Gourmet burger menu! Music in the garden from The Score, Russ & Andy & Junkyard Dog will really get you in festival mode! The Talbot There will be a Fish n Chip van on the day, provided by Dodsons, who won the 2015 National Fish n Chip Awards.  We will be showcasing ales from Peak Ales with a mobile hand pump bar this year. Live music: 2pm – Rattled. They play 50s 60s 70s and the odd modern day song – The Who, Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Johny Cash, Fleetwood Mac, Amy Winehouse plus more.   Live music: Evening – G-Men. Yew Tree, Coal Aston All the daytime action will be outside in the car park with live music: Rooster will be playing Rock/pop/Blues 2 till 3.30, Nutty Boys 4 Till 6, Rooster then going to do last set 6 till 7. Burger van and outside cask ale bar until 7pm. Pub bar inside open as usual in the evening.

The Old Hall Hotel at Hope has had a small refurbishment of the lounge bar area, as part of this a long covered up inglenook fireplace has been revealed and brought back into use. The Rose & Crown at Whittington Moor, Chesterfield (opposite the football stadium on bus routes 43/44/50/50a/X17) has been owned for the last year or so by Chris Sinclair, who also owns the Dronfield Arms, since the pub company sold it off. With the departure of the established tenant, the opportunity is being taken to give it a refurbishment and add a range of real ales and craft keg lines, with some of the pumps showcasing the Hopjacker beers brewed at the Dronfield Arms. A manager is being recruited to run the pub, which is planned to close in May for the refurbishment and reopen in August, in time for the new football season. A number of Dronfield pubs have started to reveal their plans for this years Three Valleys Festival, which takes place on Saturday 4th June. The Talbot Arms will be showcasing the range of Peak Ales, they will also have a band on in both the afternoon and evening plus a fish and chip van. The Dronfield Arms will be adding extra outdoor bars and an all afternoon programme of live music. The White Swan will be bringing their upstairs bar into use. The Manor House Hotel will be repeating last years festivities with an Abbeydale Beer tent, Sam Wain entertaining on the keyboard outside all afternoon and food from I love Ostrich. They are also offering discounted hotel room rates for festval goers, which are expected to book up quickly! Unfortunately the Blue Stoops is not expected to be ready to open in time and will no longer be part of the festival. However for those that live in Mosborough, sister True North pub the British Oak plans to open early to serve breakfast for those joining the festival feeder bus there. Other venues for this years festival are Barlow Brewery, Derby Tup (Whittington Moor), Horse & Jockey (Unstone), Miners Arms (Hundall), Royal Oak (Coal Aston), Yew Tree (Coal Aston), Pioneer Club (Dronfield), Three Tuns (Dronfield), Coach & Horses (Dronfield), Green Dragon (Dronfield), Jolly Farmer (Dronfield Woodhouse), Miners Arms (Dronfield Woodhouse) and Hyde Park Inn (Hill Top). The Ship Inn at Shalesmoor is making some subtle changes to their operation, they no longer serve food – however customers are welcome to bring their own as long as they are buying drinks at the bar! They are also looking to extend the beer range and are holding a mini beer festival for St George’s Day. Planning permission has been applied for building a house on the car park of the George & Dragon in Holmesfield. Meanwhile in Harthill permission has been applied to build housing on the field behind the Beehive pub and to build an extension to the pub itself.

The Closed Shop on Commonside is looking for an assistant manager and shift Manager. Contact: andy@reetalepubs.co.uk The Rose & Crown at Whittington Moor, Chesterfield is looking for a Manager. Contact: sincchris@gmail.com

The Sportsman, Norton, has had a short closure for minor refurbishment. The Abbey at Woodseats reopened after a short closure but at the time of writing had closed once again – this time for a major refurbishment of five weeks and £3oo,ooo. The Banner Cross is now open again under new management following a significant refurbishment. The Fox & Duck in Broomhill is soon to become free of tie for their beer supply and will be increasing the number of handpumps to 7 and stock beer from Little Critters Brewery plus guests. Saxbob is putting on a gig featuring Zacc Rogers and Sieben at the University of Sheffield Drama Studio on 1st April which will have a real ale bar, not normally available at this venue. Hopefully if the real ale proves popular the venue may consider making it a permanent thing. Just across the road from the Drama Studio is the newest opening in the Street Food Chef chain of Mexican fast food outlets. Your editor was invited to a preview night before the opening of this new store and enjoyed a very tasty Beef Brisket Burrito and a bottle of Mexican beer – they are looking at stocking a range of Mexican craft beers that pair well with spicy food at both their Arundel Street and Glossop Road canteens (Pinstone Street is takeaway only). They also have an outside catering stall they are looking to start taking to beer festivals. Also on the subject of food, there have been changes on that front at the Dog & Partridge on Trippet Lane with the departure of Bia Comida Tapas who had been resident at the Dog, the food is now cooked by landlord Connor and sees a simple but quality menu of sandwiches, burgers, scotch eggs along with some more substantial options such as steak or fish & chips. Your editor recommends the Cuban Sandwich!

Hartlepool based Camerons Brewery has acquired The Old Monk. This City Centre venue is the company’s 16th managed operation and its first in Sheffield. The Monsal Head Hotel including their Stables Bar has a new manager, Danny, who is looking to reinvigorate the beer offering there. Look out for beer festivals planned for the future. The Grafton Hotel in Worksop is holding a beer festival from 8th to 10th July. Changes are afoot at the Castle Inn, Bradway. By the time you read this it will have closed down for Enterprise Inns to refurbish, with the new leaseholders moving in soon. The new management are chefs Jack Baker and Jack Windsor, who have left Brewkitchen to start their own gastropub venture, hopefully they have the vision to make the Castle a success again. The Noah’s Ark in Crookes has reopened. Planning permission has been applied for to convert a shop unit in Broomhill on Glossop Road into a micropub.

The Miners Arms at Hundall is now serving all pints of real ale in oversize glasses.…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Re-opening for the Middlewood tavern? A developer wants to relaunch the semi-derelict Middlewood Tavern at Oughtibridge as a family pub. Following the floods of 2007, the road towards Oughtibridge collapsed, cutting the pub off from passing trade. It closed shortly afterwards. Proposals from Nico Cebani are being considered by the council. The plans state: “The restored pub will be aimed firmly at families, with a good-sized restaurant where previously there was only a drinking area, and also a dedicated beer garden and play area where parents can supervise children. There is a footbridge that crosses the river immediately over the road from the site, linking the pub to the riverside walk. It would be a wonderful gift to the area, we believe, for users of the riverside walk to be able to refresh themselves at a midway point between Sheffield and Oughtibridge.” …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. New Micropub for Broomhill? A change of use application has been submitted to the city council to turn the former Knowle’s Emporium shop, on Glossop Road in Broomhill, into what would be Sheffield’s third micropub. Applicant, Edward Finley said the Glossop Road unit was ‘well-positioned’ for people seeking an alternative to the larger pubs in Broomhill. Opening hours would be noon to 11.30pm daily and there will be a focus on real ale. —————————————————————— Rutland Arms Christmas lights The annual party at the Rutland Arms where the Christmas lights in the pub are switched on takes place on Wednesday 2nd December, from 8pm.