Starting on London Road, we have the Beer Engine. This was reopened in its current guise by Tom Harrington, who has created a friendly, laid back craft beer pub with knowledgeable staff and 6 real ale handpumps plus 4 guest keg lines. The regular house casks are from Neepsend Brewery, the rest are regular changing guests and always something interesting. Food is also available – Pub Tapas Monday to Saturday and traditional roast dinners on Sundays – all fresh ingredients.
On the other side of the main road is the Clubhouse. Very much as sports bar, popular on Sheffield United match days, but also has decent beer and cider along with a range of bar food.
Moving along London Road now, there is the Albion. A simple drinkers pub popular with football supporters, it also offers a range of mainly local real ales.
The Cremorne is a long established multi pump real ale and live music venue. Pizzas also feature here.
Meanwhile on the parallel road, Bramall Lane, opposite the football stadium you will find the Railway, which has been under new ownership in the last year. It has enjoyed a refurbishment and the addition of an interesting range of real ales at reasonable prices and has become a really good, comfortable ‘local’ with three distinct areas – the bar area, the lounge and a pool table area.
Onto Chesterfield Road to Heeley itself, alight the bus at Ponsfords furniture store and next door you will find the White Lion pub which still has a wonderfully old fashioned layout where you enter via a corridor with various drinking rooms to choose from along the corridor, which opens out into a wider area that hosts live music many evenings. You could describe the White Lion as part of Sheffield’s pub heritage – it also has a decent selection of ales!
Further along the main road there is the Crown, a traditional locals pub with a good beer garden, the real ale choice is a bit more mainstream here but reasonably priced. If you carry on past the Crown to Meersbrook, you will find the Tramshed bar, a small but popular place that has no draught beer but an interesting bottled selection.
Head uphill from Ponsfords and you will reach the Brothers Arms. Formerly known as the Olde Shakespeare, the pub was renamed to celebrate the new managers backing of local ukulele paradody band the Everley Pregnant Brothers. A decent selection of mainly local ales can be found on the bar at reasonable prices, as can some quality bar snacks including pork pies. An outdoor drinking area adjoins the pub that boasts a view right across the City Centre from it’s hill side location.
Just around the corner and downhill slightly is the Sheaf View, which 16 years ago was a closed and boarded up pub that got bought by James Birkett, refurbished and extended and has ever since offered a changing range of real ales at reasonable prices along with an impressive whisky selection. An outdoor drinking area also features.
Meanwhile over on Abbeydale Road – from Heeley is walkable or a short ride on the 10/10a Community Transport bus – is another good beer hotspot.
Picture House Social can be found in the basement of the Old Abbeydale Cinema, a landmark white building. The main bar room is comfortable and has an art deco style to it, reflecting that it is located in a former 1920s ballroom, the bar has a choice of three real ales and a regularly changing bottled craft beer selection. To the rear of the bar room is a more basic Italian Street Food diner where you can enjoy freshly made pizza and there is also a games room with ping pong tables (you can hire bats and balls from the bar).
At the other side of the crossroads is the Broadfield, a pub run by True North Brewery with the restaurant section well known for it’s home made pies. The rest of the pub is refurbished with a mixed theme of an ale house with some booths in the style of old railway passenger train compartments. Both the real ale handpumps and the keg taps offer beer from True North plus interesting guests, there is also a beer garden at the rear.
Next door to the Broadfield is Hop Hideout, a specialist beer off licence offering bottled beers from around the world plus a couple of craft keg beers on tap for either drinking on the premises or for growler fills to takeaway.
However, Sheffield City Council are still not working to their statutory obligations. Decisions on these applications were due on 30th.May, not over two weeks later.
A couple of weeks earlier, another Sheffield & District nomination, the Castle Inn (Bradway), also became an ACV. This application was originally submitted on 16th.June 2015. This delay, of almost a year, is a record – no other council has had an application for so long and not made a decision. The 2011 Localism Act states that Council have 8 weeks to determine ACV applications.
However, we are pleased to note that the formal decision record for the Castle (the Cabinet Member for Community Services and Libraries) states; ‘On the evidence provided the Property is popular with the people of Bradway and neighbouring communities, but also attracts a wider community ….. It is reasonable to consider local …….. to encompass not only the local ……. community of Bradway but also a large area that could conceivably encompass all of Sheffield itself. ‘ This emphasises a point that we have made in other applications that the ‘local community’ for a public house can encompass a considerable area.
This point is further emphasised in their report on the Sheffield Tap: ‘the Property is not only popular with rail travellers and neighbouring communities, but also attracts a wider community who visit the pub as part of “beer tourism”. The use by the neighbouring groups and to an extent rail travellers collectively identifies a “local community”. Therefore, it is a venue that attracts not only the local, in the normal sense of the word, community immediately in the railway station’s vicinity but also a national and arguably an international clientele.’
Following nomination by a local community group, The Plough (Crosspool) is registered as an ACV until 29th.June 2020. Recently Enterprise Inns closed the pub and are now believed to be leasing the building to Sainsburys. ACV status means that the Plough cannot be demolished or converted without planning permission, and also that local residents are given six months to buy the property if it is put on the market. A planning application for change of use has not yet been submitted. The Sandygate Road pub is opposite Hallam FC, the world’s oldest football ground. It is believed a pub has been on the site for 400 years.
In April, both the Three Tuns and the Cremorne gained ACV status. Sheffield and District CAMRA will continue to make further ACV applications to Sheffield City Council. We are expecting their next decision on one of our applications in early August.
Dave Pickersgill
Pub Heritage Officer, Sheffield and District CAMRA 
After a quick half in the Queens Head, Pond Street, we headed for our first destination, the Moon Inn at Stoney Middleton. The recent refurbishment looked good and it was nice to see the pub so busy at 7 o clock.
Next stop was the 3 Stags Heads in Wardlow Mires. Several members went for the Black Lurcher, produced specially for the pub by Abbeydale Brewery and it’s fair to say everyone enjoyed the real fire in the back room.
The Monsal Head Hotel followed, with its spectacular views of the viaduct. With some of us outside admiring the view, we managed to avoid overcrowding the Stables bar where several people were enjoying some appetising-looking meals.
A short walk down the road took us to the Packhorse Inn, where more fine looking food kept coming past us. A good selection of ales were on offer including quite a few from Thornbridge.
Then it was back on the bus for our penultimate stop, the Eyre Arms at Hassop and some excellent local beers from Peak Ales.
Lastly we called into the Grouse at Longshaw, a popular haunt with walkers. Beers available included Pedigree and Hobgoblin Gold. Sadly we were too late to sample any of their famous steak pie.
Amazingly enough the whole thing ran to time, thanks to Kate’s cajoling, and we were back at Sheffield interchange for 11, where a few of us sneaked in another drink before wending our way home.
The ticket price included entry into a raffle to win 6 bottles of beer kindly donated by Beer Central in Moor Markets. This was won by Kathy Clark, seen here collecting her prize from Sean at Beer Central.
Everyone agreed it was a great night, and we’ll be visiting other pubs in Derbyshire regularly throughout the year in support of our new Rural Pub of The year award.
Our next trip is on 1st July and will include the District Pub of the Year award presentation.