Category: Pubs

Just in time for Midsummer’s Day, the revamped beer garden at the Palm Tree at Walkley had its official opening. Sheffield Outdoor Living have changed the small sheltered area into a wonderful decked area with an outside bar and a children’s play area including a sand pit. The pub has free snooker on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and an open mic night on Thursday. Different events are planned throughout the summer, including some for charity, with live music at weekends. Tetley’s Bitter and Bradfield Farmer’s Blonde are the two regular real ales. John Beardshaw The Palm Tree is located at 35 Palm Street, Walkley, S6 2XF. Buses 31, 31a and 95 all stop on South Road, a couple of minutes’ walk from the pub.

The Cherry Tree on Carter Knowle Road has held three major music events over the last month.  Well known Sheffield band Jack’s Rake performed at two: the annual staff party for St Luke’s Nursing Home and ‘Music Sunday’, which now takes place the first Sunday in every month. Due to holidays, the next event will be on August Bank Holiday Sunday, when a full BBQ will be available. Although the pub currently does not have the ability to serve food, outside catering has been brought in for each event. Big audiences have attended them all and the atmosphere has been vibrant and fun. Meanwhile, the Cherry Tree/Co-op planning application saga rolls on. At the recent Sheffield planning committee meeting, councilors voted 10-0 in favour of keeping the pub and backing the planning officer’s decision to refuse the application. A big thank you to all those who took the time to visit the Sheffield planning portal and post your comments. The Co-op have appealed to the Secretary of State regarding planning issue, so this will now be decided by committee in Bristol, which takes two months. The value of the ACV status gained by the Cherry Tree in potentially protecting it from the planning application is now all the more obvious by the fact that Enterprise have chosen to ask Sheffield City Council for a review of the decision to award the ACV status. Ashley Ramsey The Cherry Tree is on Carter Knowle Avenue, Millhouses, S11 9FU. The number 6 bus serves the road regularly.

Running this lovely, local country pub is myself, Dave. This is the second time I’ve run this little pub, the first time being around nine years ago. I started out at the young age of 18 working for Ward’s Brewery in Sheffield, which gave me my love for real ale. I took the Arms back on in January 2015 working as a manager for somebody else, but it soon turned out that it wasn’t for him and wanted to leave. It then became apparant that the place was going to shut and get boarded up, which I couldn’t let happen as it’s been my local in one way or another for around 15 years, so I took on my own lease in April 2015. In that time we have redecorated twice and increased the cask ale range from one to now six cask ale pumps. We stock a huge range of real ale with the regulars being Bradfield Farmer’s Brown Cow and Robinson’s Dizzy Blonde. The rest are made up from a range of breweries from local ones like Bradfield, to Cross Bay in Morecambe and Maxim in Sunderland. We have a strong relationship with Robinson’s brewery, who have been really supportive in helping this little pub grow and for which I’m grateful. As well as the beer, we have a great range of other things going on. We hold bingo nights on a Mondaywhere every penny is paid back out in prizes. We also do a quiz night on a Wednesday which has proven to be very popular, with a gallon of beer given away every week. Alongside that we run “The Golden Cap”, which is basically a bag of bottle caps with one being gold. Pick the golden one and you’ve won the jackpot, which was £1000 the last time it was won. We hold a brilliant folk session on the last Thursday of each month, which is run by the Fates group and is proving highly popular.  Every Saturday night we have a live singer which ranges from a five piece band to some brilliant solo acts, we also do karaoke once a month just to break it up a little. On a Friday tea time we serve our home made gourmet burgers, including our now famous Wharncliffe Whopper (try it if you dare!). We also have a lovely riverside beer garden with swings and a slide for kids to play on. Coming up on Sunday 27 August from 1-7pm we have a special one-off live music festival in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, featuring Tony Walsh, Amy Carnall, Stevie Moore, Shades of Vinnie and more plus an outside bar and food. Please come along and support this great cause! Dave Briggs You can find the Wharncliffe Arms at 72 Main Road, Wharncliffe Side, Sheffield, S35 0DN. The number 57 bus from the city centre stops almost directly outside the pub, as does the SL1 Supertram link bus from Middlewood.

The Harlequin is delighted to have been shortlisted once again as a national finalist in the Great British Pub Awards. The pub is one of six venues across the country to have been shortlisted in the best cider bar/pub category. Judging for the final round is taking place over the summer, with the results announced at an awards ceremony in September. Landlady Liz Aspden said: “we’re up against some excellent and well established cider bars, and for a back-street pub in sheffield to have been shortlisted for the second year running is testament to our excellent selection of ciders and perries, and to the enthusiasm and hard work of the staff”. The pub stocks a minimum of 25 ciders alongside an excellent range of beers and spirits, so you’re sure to find something to suit your tastes. Speaking of tastes, The Harlequin is busy arranging a programme of tasting events over the summer. These popular and informative events can focus on beers, ciders, or spirits and start from just £15 per person for beer or cider, and from just £22 per person for spirits. All prices include drinks, snacks, and a talk about the history and development of the drinks. Tailored sessions are available on request for groups of six people or more; please contact the pub for additional details or to make bookings. Our live bands for August are as follows: Saturday 5 August – Rooster Thursday 10 August – Jazz and Swing night with Ralph Salt Friday 11 August – Deep in the Top Saturday 12 August – Slingshots Saturday 19 August – Blues Train

In the heart of Sheffield’s Ecclesall Road you’ll stumble across one of Sheffield’s first microbars and one if its best kept secrets, Portland House.  With its stylish yet minimalist interior, the bar is popular amongst locals and Sheffield’s real ale lovers, due to its wide range of hand-pulls and craft beers. Being the first in Welbeck Abbey Brewery’s portfolio of pubs, the bar dedicates at least four of their hand-pulls to Welbeck, alongside other featured guest beers and ciders, and CAMRA members can enjoy 10% off beer orders. For something a bit stronger they stock and rotate a small but considerately selected range of spirits provided by StarmoreBoss on Sharrow Vale Road. They’ve also paired up with Le Bon Vin, a family run Sheffield wine merchants, and together they have selected a delicious range of wines available by the glass or bottle. It’s not all about the booze though, so if you’re after something mellower you’ll find Sheffield’s own Birdhouse Tea Co or Cafeology coffee available at the bar. Both go perfectly with a slice of fruit cake provided by Tipple Tails, a Sheffield based company who make award-winning traditional fruit cakes with locally sourced ingredients. The bar is dedicated to using local suppliers for all of their products, and even serve up their own style of ‘Northern Tapas’ with their cheeses, pies and chutneys all coming from local suppliers. The bar also hosts a range of speciality evenings from gin tasting to beer and cheese pairings, which is always held in conjunction with local suppliers and showcases their  passion for their products. It’s a great place to relax and watch the world go by, and you may even bump into a local celebrity or two as the bar is often frequented by members of the Arctic Monkeys! Portland House is located at 286 Ecclesall Road and is open six days a week (closed Mondays). Buses 65, 81, 82, 83, 88 and 272 all stop nearby.

The team at Champs Sports Bar is celebrating again after being shortlisted as a national finalist in the Great British Pub Awards for the third year running. Licensee Danny Grayson has been recognized as one of only six finalists in the Best Sports Bar categories and will go on to compete in the national awards which take place in London in September. Champs Sports Bar is the only sports bar that has been recognized in the North of England with the other 5 finalist coming from Wales, London and the Midlands. Champs on Ecclesall Road opened in August 2012 following a £500,000 joint investment with Punch Taverns, which transformed the former Pomona into a cool and contemporary sports bar. With 31 large TV screens showing high profile sports all day every day, from Premiership football matches to horse racing and superbikes, Champs is a sports lover’s dream. The modern and welcoming interior, complete with a wide range of sporting memorabilia including a full-size motorbike gives it a real edge over other venues. Danny said: “I could see the potential with Champs and its history on Ecclesall Road dating back to 1996, Champs Sports Bar taps into our fascination with sports and thanks to a creative approach and a focus on standards, we’ve created a winning concept.” The sports interior is complemented with a strong food and drink offer, based on good quality and value for money. With a striking American grill theme, the menu includes favourites from ribs and burgers to pizzas. All of the bar’s food is from local suppliers and cooked fresh on the premises. Commenting on the recognition, Danny said: “The team have worked extremely hard to create this successful venue. It’s not just about the sports; it’s about the staff, all of whom are highly motivated and passionate about customer care and it’s all about excellent customer service too.”

You may remember that last year the Co-op Group put in a planning application to demolish the Cherry Tree and build a new store in its place as Enterprise Inns who own the pub had agreed to sell it to them. We have opposed that application, and made a bid to have the pub declared an Asset of Community Value to try to preserve it. That has now been successful – the Council granted the pub Community Asset status in May. That means that if Enterprise Inns want to proceed with a sale they must give six months’ delay to allow an alternative bid to be put together – although that doesn’t guarantee its success. The Co-op Group complained to the Council that their planning application was not being decided by the Planning Committee and appealed to the national Planning Inspectorate to force Sheffield to hear the application. The Council quite reasonably replied that they were waiting for the result of the Asset of Community Value bid, and that in any case there were design issues for the proposed store that were still not resolved. Once the Community Value decision was made they then scheduled a Planning Committee for the 20th June. The Planning Officer however will recommend that the Committee refuse the Application, because of the pub’s Community Asset status, but also because of the design issues – the Co-op having refused to modify the designs as the Planning Dept thought was necessary. However Co-op Group have refused to withdraw their appeal, which means that the final decision will now be made by the Inspector and the Planning Committee can only make a recommendation. It seems that Co-op Group [perhaps encouraged by Enterprise Inns] are using the appeal process to try to undermine the Community Asset decision and persuade the Inspector to ignore it and approve the application. This Appeal will be decided by mid-July, but on the basis of written documents. The Group will be submitting additional evidence both to the Planning Committee and to the Inspector. Those of you who made objections or comments on the planning application will probably have received a letter notifying you of the Appeal. Please note that you have until 4 July to make any new or additional individual objections or comments. If you do make any such objections or comments to the Planning Committee they will automatically be passed to the Inspector. In view of the Co-op Group’s apparent wish to undermine the Community Asset decision it would be helpful if you could stress your support for the Cherry Tree as well as any opposition to the Co-op store proposal. If the pub is saved then we as a Group will support any efforts to bring about a new management regime for the pub, to make it a more community-friendly place with a positive future. The current managers have done a lot to improve service and popularity but are restricted by the owners Enterprise Inns in what they can do. There are at least a couple of other parties interested in buying the pub and running it more effectively. The Group will circulate a new Petition in support of the Cherry Tree which can be signed in either of the shops adjacent to the pub, or in the Away You Go cafe. There is also a standard letter attached to this email which you could use to write to the Inspector, adding to or modifying it if you wish. You could refer to my previous emails about this for some of the grounds on which we have opposed the application. You can email these letters to West2@pins.gsi.gov.uk quoting the Appeal Reference APP/J4423/W/17/3171556 OR you can post them to Sarah Hardy, The Planning Inspectorate, Room 3M, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, BRISTOL BS1 6PN PLEASE DON’T FORGET THE APPEAL REFERENCE OR THE 4 JULY DEADLINE. Any queries or comments I will be happy to respond to them. Cheers, Mike Mike Hodson Secretary Carter Knowle & Millhouses Community Group

Many of you will be aware of the recent plight of the Plough and the community members striving to prevent the loss of their local pub. It had been feared that the site was set to be converted into a Sainsbury’s convenience store, and while that has not happened yet, the pub is still advertised to let and fears remain over its closure. A group of regulars and local residents mounted a petition against the proposals last month, and they are now starting to make progress towards taking over the running of the pub as a collective. The Plough Community Benefit Society Ltd has now registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, meaning they are now able to legally fundraise through a Community Share Issue. Earlier this week came the news that a private investor has offered to buy the freehold of the pub on the group’s behalf, carry out renovations and then lease it back to them at a reasonable rate for an initial 10-year period. This means that the group would need to raise £120,000 through sales of shares in the business in order to cover the start-up costs and rent rates. The group are now looking to gauge the amount of interest in these shares. Shares will be valued at £1 and sold in batches, with a minimum investment of £250 rising to the legal maximum of £20,000. All shareholders will have equal voting rights irrespective of the value of their holding. If you would be interested in making an investment in the Plough, please contact the group directly at ploughsandygate@gmail.com for a copy of the pledge form or for more information. There will also be a public meeting in Crosspool on 15 June for potential investors. UPDATE: The group has set up a crowdfunding website where you can choose to pledge money in return for shares, or simply make a donation towards the fund. The page can be found here.