Category: Inn Brief

On 1st July, The Angel Spinkhill Community Interest Company exchanged contracts on The Angel Hotel with Punch Taverns. On the completion date (26th August), they will own the building. This is a significant step in the campaign to Save The Angel. The total figure raised by their appeal was £170,870. This is made up of four major investors (£30k each) and £50,870 from individual investors. The Castle Inn (Bolsterstone) has reopened. Dean and Amanda Crookes have purchased the Rivelin, Tofts Lane, Sheffield. After closing the pub for a short period post completion, they plan to re-open shortly afterwards after refurbishment. Lauren White is leaving the Travellers Rest in Apperknowle which she has helped landlady Sara run for the last two years to go to a new job at the Tickled Trout in Barlow, which is due to reopen soon under its new ownership. The Trout’s website (www.tickledtroutbarlow.com) gives an idea of the new owners ethos, it will be food led with good quality cooking but with the relaxed atmosphere and good beer a pub environment offers. A new live music venue has opened on Dronfield High Street – JD’s lounge. The bar does not currently offer real ale but the possibilities of putting cask beer in is currently being investigated! Riverside Live on Mowbray Street sees a change to the food offering from 1st August with the Twisted Burger Company taking residency in their kitchen. Twisted Burger Company started out life as the Harley Hotel’s food offer (and still is) and has expanded doing burger stalls at festivals and recently took their brand to the Aire Bar in Leeds for a few months. The White Lion at Heeley is through to the regional final to be the best “entertainment venue” in the North of England and Scotland for the Morning Advertiser awards. The Maida Vale bar is now open on West Street, this is a live music venue in the premises previously known as the Bedroom and the Saddle. It is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9pm to 4am and has real ale available.

The Sportsman at Lodge Moor is one of the few pubs in the area to be selling a new beer from Timothy Taylor. The beer has been specially brewed to celebrate the Tour de France. It is Le Champion, a 4.5% French style blonde beer brewed with Alsace Strisselspalt hops and continental malts to give a smooth body and a delicate hop fragrance. The Sportsman also sells Taylor Landlord and Tetley Bitter. – Shaun Barnes is the new manager of The Plough, Sandygate Road. Bradfield Farmer’s Blonde and Sharpe’s Doombar are regular beers and there will be a rotating guest. A new menu is planned and the Sunday and Thursday quiz nights continue, both with free buffet. – Carbrook Hall (Attercliffe), the Norfolk Arms (Grenoside) and The Friendship (Stocksbridge) remain open, but are all currently advertised as ‘for sale.’ – The Miners (Stocksbridge) has closed. It is to be converted into a private dwelling.

Royal Standard has been redecorated and built a large stage in the main room. Quiz Mon-Wed, open mic Thur, live music or DJ Fri-Sat, DJ Sun. – Nelson Rock Bar appears to have reopened as the Rockin Chair. – The New Inn at Gleadless had a successful beer festival the week after Easter. – Pub owners Mitchells and Butlers are seeking council permission to replace the car park in front of the Robin Hood pub in Millhouses with an outdoor space. They wish to pave the area and install a heated ‘jumbrella.’ Mike Hodson, secretary of Carter Knowle and Millhouses Community Group, said such a plan would result in “a large marquee effectively dominating the view from surrounding roads both of the pub, but also up Millhouses Lane and Springfield Road.” He is urging objectors to make their views known to the council before a decision is taken. – The Castle Inn (Bolsterstone) is currently closed. The owners, Trust Inns, are advertising ‘For Let.’ – The New Barrack Tavern has won a top award from SIBA (the Society of Independent Brewers) in a national competition held during the recent BeerX 2014, an event designed to highlight the best of British brewing. Steph and Kevin Woods, managers at the New Barrack Tavern have won a Best SIBA Local award for their outstanding work. “This is a great day for us, for Sheffield and of course, our wonderful customers and suppliers whose loyalty and help has made our ten years here such a joy,” says Steph. “We’re particularly grateful to Dave Hughes at Acorn Brewery whose nomination made our win possible. This business award draws attention to our commitment to operating to the best standards possible, and we’re both very grateful that our hard work has been recognised.” – A memorial to the Great Sheffield Flood has been installed on the site of a building destroyed in the disaster. The original Gardener’s Rest pub at Neepsend was one of 700 buildings washed away on March 11, 1864. Artist Simon Wrigglesworth-Baker, has created a sculpture and plaque. He said: “It seems appropriate the sculpture should be placed here on the site of a building destroyed in the 1864 flood, and which is now the garden of the present-day pub – which was also badly damaged in the floods of 2007.” – Co-Manager Robin Baker left Shakespeares on May 16th to start a job at Abbeydale Brewery. The pub will now be solely managed by Chris, with Kaisha and Chris Wadsworth promoted to assistant managers. Robin would like to thank everyone who has made his time at Shakespeares thoroughly enjoyable and he is pleased to see that he’s leaving the pub in very capable hands! Robin also thanks everyone who came down for his leaving do on May 18th! – Pub retailer and brewer Greene King is looking to redevelop a former industrial site between Broadfield Close and Little London Road as part of its Hungry Horse chain. They propose a one and two-storey building with an outdoor seating area, small children’s playground and 79 parking spaces. They aim to create 50 jobs. – Old Number 7, Barnsley: “Once again its with great pleasure that we have won the Barnsley Pub of the Year award, thanks to all who voted. Please check our Facebook, Twitter and website for details of upcoming events including “meet the brewer” evenings and beer tasting sessions.” – The Castle Inn at Bradway now has food up and running. The menu includes sandwiches and snacks, pub grub classics and quality home cooked specials. Food is served lunchtimes and evenings Tuesday to Friday, all day Saturday plus Sunday lunchtime.

The Ship Inn at Shalesmoor now has 4 handpumps, all serving local beers. The Castle Inn at Bradway reopens at 6pm on Friday 11th April under the management of Craig and Marie Harris, previously of the Peaks at Castleton where they offered local ales and home cooked food. They are managers employed Tandem Leisure who have taken on the lease of this pub, along with the Talbot and Peaks. Expect real ales on most of the 6 handpumps on the bar, which will have seen work prior to opening. The kitchen is subject to refurbishment so food won’t be introduced straight away, although hot pork sandwiches did feature on the opening night! On the 22nd May The Closed Shop will be receiving it’s Pub Of The Month award, and we’d love if you came to help us celebrate. They’ll be a buffet, and for reasons that will become clear, LOADS of beer. Why loads of beer? Well, we’re rather committed to the Cask Ale cause here, sowe’re hosting our first beer festival from Thursday 22nd till Sunday 25th to launch the start of the summer in style. There will be a BBQ in our large beer garden and a whole extra bar for our expanded ale range. And yes, don’t worry, they’ll still be Blue Bee Nectar Pale.

In early February, the Royal Oak at Deepcar was taken on by Jeana and Simon from the nearby Wharncliffe Arms as a food/real ale outlet to be run by the two of them, in parallel with the Arms. Two new handpumps have been installed, initially providing Bradfield beers. – The Hill Top Sports & Social Club in Dronfield is now admitting CAMRA members, just show your membership card to be signed in as a guest. – Plans to turn the former Vine Inn on Cemetery Road into four three-bedroom properties have been approved by Sheffield Council. The development includes a two-storey rear extension. – Amended plans to knock down The Wheel pub on Plumbley Hall Road in Mosborough and build seven homes were conditionally approved at a council planning meeting on 17th February. – The Timbertops and Rivelin Valley Hotel are the latest two pubs reported to be for sale, freehold. – The Peaks Inn at Castleton has now reopened under new management. – The Wanted Inn at Sparrowpit has reopened as a freehouse. – The Norfolk Arms on Dixon Lane now has real ale. – Brewdog Sheffield is now open on Devonshire Street, as expected no real ale and fairly expensive prices, however there is plenty to keep the craft keg fan happy. – Mick and Denise are leaving the Castle Inn at Bradway at the end of March and celebrated their last month there by offering all beers at £2.50 a pint. They have chosen not to renew the Enterprise Inns lease, with the pub company apparently having no plans to invest anything in the pub. – The Horns in Holmesfield has closed again and is boarded up, Enterprise Inns has had a number of offers to buy this pub that has been put on the market freehold, the majority of which according to the parish council involve plans for residential development. – Chesterfield CAMRA’s Pub of the Season is the Chesterfield Alehouse micropub on West Bars, a few minutes walk from the town’s market place. – Hallowes Golf Club in Dronfield now has real ale on the bar.

The Freemasons at the bottom of Walkley Lane is under new management and is now called The Riverside. There is a range of real ales starting at £2.35 a pint. – The Sportsman at Crosspool, an Ember Inn has six real ales with the guest beers being voted for by the customers. There is an illustrated Ale Guide with descriptions of the beers to choose from. The manager Michael Cashmore and his team offer all real ales at £2.49 after 5pm on Monday and to CAMRA members there is 20p off all the time. – The Coach & Horses in Dronfield is offering 20p off a pint for CAMRA members on all the Thornbridge cask ales. – A planning application has been submitted to Sheffield Council seeking permission to demolish The Wheel, Plumbley Lane, Mosborough, and replace it with housing. Documents supporting the application say there are other pubs nearby and The Wheel is no longer financially viable. A decision is expected from the council by the end of March. – Bamford Post Office has relocated to the Angler’s Rest. Liz Marshall, of pub owners Bamford Community Society, said: “We are delighted to be able to save this amenity.” Continue reading “Inn Brief”

In late November, pub and brew­ing company Marston’s, sold 202 pubs to New River Retail. It is feared that New River will convert the pubs into stores. New River Retail is a specialist real estate investment trust (REIT) focussed on the UK food and value retail sector. Mike Benner, chief executive of the Campaign for Real Ale, said “This pub sell-off is bad news for communities which may lose their pubs as a result. New River Retail have seriously underestimated the challenges and opposition that they will face in trying to sell profitable community pubs and convert them into convenience stores and other uses.”

Stonegate Pub Company has taken over 78 pubs from the administrators of the Bramwell Pub Company. Locally, these include the Bessemer (Leopold Street) and The Graduate (Surrey Street). Stonegate have 623 outlets across the UK, including: The Beehive (West Street), The Globe (Howard Street), The Cavendish (West Street) and Yates’s (Cambridge Street). They have a turnover of some £570M and are second behind JD Wetherspoon in the high-street sector. Also, with mention of the Cavendish on West Street, this pub will temporarily close in January for refurbishment.

In April, Sheffield Planning Committee rejected a proposal to turn the Old Cart & Horses Inn in High Green into a Sainsbury’s ‘Local’ store. Following an appeal, the arguments will be heard by a Government planning inspector. No date has yet been set for the appeal, which will be either a public inquiry or a more informal public hearing.

Craig and Marie have now left the Peaks Inn at Castleton, they ceased trading and closed the pub on the 1st January. During their time there they increased the selection of real ales with local breweries supported, Craig’s food got a five star review from Martin Dawes in the Sheffield Star newspaper and the bed & breakfast accommodation featured on Channel 4’s Three in a Bed show. However the rent being charged by Punch Taverns was too high for the business to be viable going forward. We are told Punch plan on investing in a major refurbishment and leasing the pub to new tenants with a higher rent to reflect the investment. Craig and Marie are looking for alternative pub management roles in our area and we wish them all the best for the future.