Crow Inn
Keep an eye out on Scotland Street over the next few weeks for the reincarnation of one of Sheffield’s long lost historic watering holes. After over ten years as the budget Sleep Hotel, the much missed Old Crown Inn/R&B’s/The Crown has been given a new lease of life as The Crow Inn. Purchased last year by Wendy Woodhouse, known to many from her time as landlady at The Harlequin, and run by Kate Major & Chris Bamford who are also at the helm at The Rutland Arms, an extensive refurbishment has been carried out to restore the bar area and transform the hotel accommodation.
The comfortable two roomed bar features an eclectic range of beer across five hand pulls and 14 keg lines, from classic German lager and wheat beer, our house cask bitter and pale ale from Abbeydale Brewery, to an ever changing selection of the latest hazy IPA, American Stouts of massive proportions and cask beers from around the country. A wide selection of quality wine, gin, rum & whisky (the pub is on Scotland Street, after all) will be available too. Our friendly and knowledgeable management team, Adam and Lizzie, provide a warm welcome.
The hotel features seven en suite guest rooms, furnished to a high standard, with prices ranging from £45-£60 a night.
If you have any questions, or are interested in booking a room, drop us an email at thecrowinn@gmail.com – or when we are open, pop in and see us! And lastly… why the Crow Inn? Once it’s up, have a look at our pub sign and there’s a clue!
Chris Bamford
The Joiners Arms micropub opened in Bakewell on Friday 2nd May and features 6 cask ales on handpumps plus a further selection of craft beers on keg taps. A loyalty card is available to buy that offers discounts on pints of beer.
Breweries featured on the handpump on the opening day included Buxton, North Riding, Abbeydale, Torrside, Hawkshead and Thornbridge.
The pub is located on North Church Street by the roundabout, conveniently close to the bus stop where the 218 to Sheffield departs from! 
To that note, we have an upcoming tasting evening featuring beer procured from three regional Belgian breweries: 3 Fonteinen, Oud Beersel and Hanssens Artisanaal. The various gueuze and kriek beers will be paired with topical breads, cheeses, jams and mustards. This is sure to be an incredible evening, and tickets are extremely limited; details of which can be found on our Facebook Page. Search: Railway Hotel Bramall Lane.
Meanwhile to drink there is more than just tea, a range of craft beer is available in cans for diners to accompany their meal, including their own collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery – Birdhouse, a beer brewed with green tea, jasmine and hibiscus. Also available from Abbeydale is Heathen Pale Ale, which is now gluten free. At the time of writing assistant Manager Elli was planning on updating the beer selection and it is fantastic to see effort being made to serve good beer that compliments the food. 
Work continues on renovations, refurbishment and fitting out at the Crow Inn on Scotland Street, a craft beer bar and boutique hotel being opened by Chris and Kate from the Rutland Arms. At the time of going to press an opening date hadn’t been announced but the current target is mid to late May.
A special collaboration beer has been brewed with Steel City Brewing for the opening of the Crow Inn. It is a 7.2% ABV dry hopped sour Brut IPA called Corvus Corone, which is the scientific name for the Carrion Crow, which according to the RSPB is a species that can be quite fearless yet wary of man. Make of that what you will.
The King & Miller at Deepcar (Bradfield Brewery’s second pub after the Nags Head near Loxley) have been recruiting staff for their newly refurbished kitchen and are to introduce food.
JD Wetherspoons, you’ve probably noticed, regularly review their locations with new openings as well as closures. The latest round of closures around the country have been announced with the only one in South Yorkshire being the Rhinoceros in Rotherham, where customers will of course have an alternative branch – the Blue Coats – that is bigger and nicer just up the hill!
Rotherham CAMRA branch have announced their Pub of the Year winners. Their overall winner was the Wath Tap micropub – a wonderful friendly little community orientated bar with good ale just a couple of minutes from Wath bus station (buses 22a/22c/22x run there regularly from Rotherham Interchange via Parkgate, if you are going from Sheffield there are plenty of buses, trams and trains connecting to Rotherham).
They also presented a ‘most improved pub’ award to the Church House Wetherspoons, also in Wath upon Dearne and a Rotherham town centre pub of the Year to the Blue Coats Wetherspoon.
The latest from Rotherham branch can be found on their Facebook page.
Dronfield & District branch, another of our neighbours, have also presented their awards with the Pub of the year going to the Miners Arms in Hundall, Cider Pub going to the Travellers Rest in Apperknowle and Club of the Year going to the Pioneer Club in Dronfield. Their Winter Pub of the Season was the Cross Daggers in Coal Aston. More details can be found in their ‘Peel Ale’ magazine or online at www.dronfield.camra.org.uk.
Sheffield Brewery are supplying beer for a Mayday bank holiday weekend tap takeover at the Chesterfield Alehouse micropub. 
So far, the owners claim to have spent £735k: roof work, removal of debris round the building, removal of layers of tarmac ….. most importantly, the preservation and partial restoration of the Grade II* listed interior. The ‘Old Oak Room’ is now ready for a careful repainting of the ceiling. In addition, the upstairs room with its C17/18th. fireplace will be brought into public use when the building reopens.
With 14 draught products – including cask and craft ales, lagers and ciders – The Peak Hotel was commended for having a “pint to suit every palate” and for its rotating choice of beers from local breweries such as Bradfield and Abbeydale. The pub also scored highly for its cellar management, staff training on beer – carried out by Edward Theakson of Theakston Brewery – and for helping customers choose their ideal pint by offering a ‘try before you buy’ policy and displaying the colours of its craft and cask ales.
The judges put the award down to the dedication of licensee Rick Ellison who transformed the tired, unloved pub when he took it over five years ago, investing in a £200,000 revamp to upgrade and refurbish The Peak Hotel in a quirky style, which has won it a reputation as Castleton’s most eccentric pub.
Ellison, who grew up in the Peak District, also runs the Old Hall Hotel at Hope and is a champion of great beer and cider in the surrounding area, founding the Hope Valley Beer & Cider festival four years ago. He received the prestigious award for The Peak Hotel at a gala ceremony at The Belfry resort in Sutton Coldfield from comedian Ed Byrne.
The win is a double celebration for Rick who will be marking the 300th anniversary of the Old Hall Hotel gaining its license next month.
Rick said: “We take great pride in the quality of our beer and cider and invest a lot of time in looking after them. It’s a fantastic acknowledgment and a real honour to have won. It wouldn’t have been possible without our brilliant team of staff.”
Both Darrell and Richard successfully passed their own personal licences and plans were then submitted for A4 status at the Arch, which was dutifully granted by Sheffield City Council with a handful of conditions. The final hurdle was the premises licence; there was plenty of paperwork to be done here, but again this was granted by SCC in early August 2018 following the nerve-wracking 28-day window for any opposition. The notification from the council triggered that six-week renovation, and friends and family mucked in to meet all of the deadlines and milestones.
Following a detailed recruitment process, the doors were open for the first time on Monday 24 September for a friends and family night, followed by a VIP night on the Tuesday for local Chapeltown businesses. The Monday “soft launch” was intentional to iron out any teething problems prior to our first weekend, however, we did not appreciate just how overwhelmingly well the new venture would be received.
Fast forward six months and many lessons have been learned. We now have CAMRA discount night on Mondays, have had themed quizzes on Tuesdays (80’s and 90’s nights going down particularly well), live entertainment on Wednesdays and Sunday afternoons as well as free YAPAS (pork pie and sausage rolls) on Friday and Saturday lunchtimes.
We strive to procure all of our stock from the Yorkshire area, ales, cans, a rotating keg line, gins even bar snacks to keep the local economy thriving. For more information on what’s happening at The Chap Tap, check out our Facebook and Instagram pages which is regularly updated. We have a great transport network in Chapeltown, trains are just a 10-minute ride from the town centre, we hope to see you soon at The Chap Tap!
Darrell Johnson