Sunday, April 9, 2017

Shef's Special

For my latest wanderings, I finally made the time to return to a place that I hadn't visited for 7 years, since I did my postgraduate study there. This was back in the dark days when I was a lager drinker and, as a result, I'd never really explored the large number of pubs on offer in a city that I will always remember fondly. I speak of England's 3rd most populated later city, the Steel City. This is the tale of a trip to Sheffield.

Sheffield  is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. With some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base. The population of the City of Sheffield is 569,700 (mid-2015 est.) and it is one of the eight largest regional English cities that make up the Core Cities Group. Sheffield is the third largest English district by population. The metropolitan population of Sheffield is 1,569,000.
In the 19th century, Sheffield gained an international reputation for steel production. Known as the Steel City, many innovations were developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel, fuelling an almost tenfold increase in the population in the Industrial Revolution. Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1843, becoming the City of Sheffield in 1893. International competition in iron and steel caused a decline in these industries in the 1970s and 1980s, coinciding with the collapse of coal mining in the area.
The 21st century has seen extensive redevelopment in Sheffield along with other British cities. Sheffield's gross value added (GVA) has increased by 60% since 1997, standing at £9.2 billion in 2007. The economy has experienced steady growth averaging around 5% annually, greater than that of the broader region of Yorkshire and the Humber.
The city is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines, and the valleys of the River Don and its four tributaries, the Loxley, the Porter Brook, the Rivelin and the Sheaf. 61% of Sheffield's entire area is green space, and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park. There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, with an often quoted estimated 2 million trees, and claims of Sheffield having the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe.
The city has a long sporting heritage, and is home to the world's oldest football club, Sheffield F.C. Games between the two professional clubs, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, are known as the Steel City derby.

The area now occupied by the City of Sheffield is believed to have been inhabited since at least the late Upper Palaeolithic period, about 12,800 years ago. The earliest evidence of human occupation in the Sheffield area was found at Creswell Crags to the east of the city. In the Iron Age the area became the southernmost territory of the Pennine tribe called the Brigantes. It is this tribe who are thought to have constructed several hill forts in and around Sheffield.
Following the departure of the Romans, the Sheffield area may have been the southern part of the Celtic kingdom of Elmet, with the rivers Sheaf and Don forming part of the boundary between this kingdom and the kingdom of Mercia. Gradually, Anglian settlers pushed west from the kingdom of Deira. A Celtic presence within the Sheffield area is evidenced by two settlements called Wales and Waleswood close to Sheffield. The settlements that grew and merged to form Sheffield, however, date from the second half of the first millennium, and are of Anglo-Saxon and Danish origin. In Anglo-Saxon times, the Sheffield area straddled the border between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that King Eanred of Northumbria submitted to King Egbert of Wessex at the hamlet of Dore (now a suburb of Sheffield) in 829, a key event in the unification of the kingdom of England under the House of Wessex. After the Norman conquest, Sheffield Castle was built to protect the local settlements, and a small town developed that is the nucleus of the modern city.
By 1296, a market had been established at what is now known as Castle Square, and Sheffield subsequently grew into a small market town. In the 14th century, Sheffield was already noted for the production of knives, as mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and by the early 1600s it had become the main centre of cutlery manufacture in England outside London, overseen by the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. From 1570 to 1584, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor.

During the 1740s, a form of the crucible steel process was discovered that allowed the manufacture of a better quality of steel than had previously been possible. In about the same period, a technique was developed for fusing a thin sheet of silver onto a copper ingot to produce silver plating, which became widely known as Sheffield plate. These innovations spurred Sheffield's growth as an industrial town, but the loss of some important export markets led to a recession in the late 18th and early 19th century. The resulting poor conditions culminated in a cholera epidemic that killed 402 people in 1832. The population of the town grew rapidly throughout the 19th century; increasing from 60,095 in 1801 to 451,195 by 1901. The town was incorporated as a borough in 1842 and was granted a city charter in 1893. The influx of people also led to demand for better water supplies, and a number of new reservoirs were constructed on the outskirts of the town.
The collapse of the dam wall of one of these reservoirs in 1864 resulted in the Great Sheffield Flood, which killed 270 people and devastated large parts of the town. The growing population led to the construction of many back-to-back dwellings that, along with severe pollution from the factories, inspired George Orwell in 1937 to write: "Sheffield, I suppose, could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World".
A recession in the 1930s was halted by increasing international tensions as the Second World War loomed; Sheffield's steel factories were set to work manufacturing weapons and ammunition for the war effort. As a result, the city became a target for bombing raids, the heaviest of which occurred on the nights of 12 and 15 December 1940, now known as the Sheffield Blitz. More than 660 lives were lost and many buildings destroyed.
In the 1950s and 1960s, many of the city's slums were demolished, and replaced with housing schemes such as the Park Hill flats. Large parts of the city centre were also cleared to make way for a new system of roads. Increased automation and competition from abroad resulted in the closure of many steel mills. The 1980s saw the worst of this run-down of Sheffield's industries, along with those of many other areas of the UK. The building of the Meadowhall Centre on the site of a former steelworks in 1990 was a mixed blessing, creating much needed jobs but hastening the decline of the city centre. Attempts to regenerate the city were kick-started when the city hosted the 1991 World Student Games, which saw the construction of new sporting facilities such as the Sheffield Arena, Don Valley Stadium and the Ponds Forge complex.
Sheffield is changing rapidly as new projects regenerate some of the more run-down parts of the city. One such, the Heart of the City Project, has initiated a number of public works in the city centre: the Peace Gardens were renovated in 1998, the Millennium Galleries opened in April 2001, the Winter Gardens were opened in May 2003, and a public space to link these two areas, the Millennium Square, was opened in May 2006. Additional developments included the remodelling of Sheaf Square, in front of the recently refurbished railway station. The new square contains "The Cutting Edge", a sculpture designed by Si Applied Ltd and made from Sheffield steel.
Sheffield was particularly hard-hit during the 2007 United Kingdom floods and the 2010 Big Freeze. Many landmark buildings such as Meadowhall and the Sheffield Wednesday grounds flooded due to being close to nearby rivers that flow through the city.

Sheffield is located at
 WikiMiniAtlas
53°23′N 1°28′W / 53.383°N 1.467°W / 53.383; -1.467. It lies directly beside Rotherham, from which it is separated largely by the M1 motorway. Although Barnsley Metropolitan Borough also borders Sheffield to the north, the town itself is a few miles further away. The southern and western borders of the city are shared with Derbyshire; in the first half of the 20th century Sheffield extended its borders south into Derbyshire, annexing a number of villages, including Totley, Dore and the area now known as Mosborough Townships. Directly to the west of the city are the Peak District National Park and the Pennine hill range, while the lowlands of the South Yorkshire Coalfield lie to the east.

Sheffield is a geographically diverse city. The city nestles in a natural amphitheatre created by several hills forming the eastern foothills of the Pennines, and the confluence of five rivers: Don, Sheaf, Rivelin, Loxley and Porter. As such, much of the city is built on hillsides with views into the city centre or out to the countryside. Blake Street, in the S6 postcode area is the third steepest residential street in England, with a gradient of 16.6°. The city's lowest point is just 29 metres (95 ft) above sea level near Blackburn Meadows, while some parts of the city are at over 500 metres (1,640 ft); the highest point being 548 metres (1,798 ft) at High Stones, near Margery Hill. However, 79% of the housing in the city is between 100 and 200 metres (330 and 660 ft) above sea level.
Estimated to contain over two million trees, Sheffield has more trees per person than any other city in Europe, and according to Sheffield City Council, it is England's greenest city, a claim that was reinforced when it won the 2005 Entente Florale competition. It has over 170 woodlands (covering 10.91 sq mi or 28.3 km2), 78 public parks (covering 7.07 sq mi or 18.3 km2) and 10 public gardens. Added to the 52.0 square miles (134.7 km2) of national park and 4.20 square miles (10.9 km2) of water this means that 61% of the city is greenspace. Despite this, about 64% of Sheffield householders live further than 300 metres (328 yd) from their nearest greenspace, although access is better in less affluent neighbourhoods across the city. Since 2012 there have been disputes between the city council and residents over the fate of the city's 36,000 highway trees, with 2000 having been felled by October 2015 as part of the £2 billion Streets Ahead road improvement scheme.
Sheffield also has a very wide variety of habitat, comparing favourably with any city in the United Kingdom: urban, parkland and woodland, agricultural and arable land, moors, meadows and freshwater-based habitats. There are six areas within the city that are designated as sites of special scientific interest.
The present city boundaries were set in 1974 (with slight modification in 1994), when the former county borough of Sheffield merged with Stocksbridge Urban District and two parishes from the Wortley Rural District. This area includes a significant part of the countryside surrounding the main urban region. Roughly a third of Sheffield lies in the Peak District National Park. No other English city included parts of a national park within its boundary, until the creation in March 2010 of the South Downs National Park, part of which lies within Brighton and Hove.

My journey began on a dry but chilly Wednesday as I boarded a train at Nottingham station and arrived in the Steel City within the hour. I didn't even have to leave the station to get to the first destination on the day's itinerary. Conveniently located at Platform 1B of Sheffield station is the Sheffield Tap.



Opened in 2009, the pub is located in what was once the first class refreshment room, originally built in 1904. After years of neglect, the main bar area has been the subject of an award-winning restoration, retaining many original features and featuring in CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. Further seating has been provided in the entrance corridor and to the right of the bar. There is now an on-site brewery, Tapped, which opened in 2013 in the impressive former dining room and visible through a glass screen. The bar also boasts a selection of over 200 bottled beers. I entered the pub, full of excitement and anticipation for the day ahead. The 11 handpulls that greeted, provided me with an interesting choice to begin the day offering a number of interesting beers, namely Thornbridge Jaipur, Wild Beer Co. Fresh, Thornbridge Galaxia, Kirkstall Black Band Porter, Hawkshead 5 Hop, Bristol Beer Co. Enigma, Tapped IPA, Tapped Pegler, Tapped Porter, Harbour Red & White and Thistly Cross Original Cider. Having never tried beers from Tapped, and being on their home turf, I decided to give the Pegler a go. I was not to be disappointed. At 4.4%, this is a very drinkable pale ale with strong hop notes and a delightful citrus kick. The finish is smooth, dry and refreshing and makes this an excellent beer to begin the day with.

Moving away from the station, I continued on my journey, heading up the main A61 road towards the Ponds Forge centre. Shortly before reaching this, I crossed the road and turned left onto Pond Hill where my next destination sat amongst construction work. I had arrived at the Old Queen's Head.



This fantastic-looking pub occupies the oldest domestic building in Sheffield. Originally the hunting lodge for Sheffield castle, it is believed to date from 1475, although the oldest written record of it is in an inventory compiled in 1582 of the estate of George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, that included the furnishings of this building then called 'the hawle at the Poandes'. As part of the earl's estate, it was used as a banqueting hall for parties hunting wildfowl in the nearby ponds. These ponds are now gone but commemorated in local names such as Pond Street, Pond Hill and Ponds Forge. The building was being used as a residence by the beginning of the 19th century. In 1840, a pub called the Old Queen's Head (believed to be named after Mary, Queen of Scots) was opened in the building next door and, sometime after 1862, the pub expanded into this building. Given Grade II* listed status in 1952, the pub was refurbished in 1993 as part of the Tom Cobleigh chain but is now served by Thwaites brewery. This atmospheric little pub has a comfortable feel to it and the interior layout retains original features in the older half and more modern features in the newer part. There is a U shaped lounge around a central bar and this adjoins a beamed dining room with an upstairs function room for hire. The bar itself has 6 handpulls, 5 of which are in use, with the majority offering beers from the Thwaites stable, namely Lancaster Bomber, Wainwright, Original and Nutty Black. There is also Salvation from Abbeydale available but it is much, much too early in the day for a rice pudding stout and so I opted for the Lancaster Bomber, which was in excellent condition. I took a seat a one of the tables facing the bar, close to the boundary between the 2 areas, and soaked up the atmosphere of this little place. Perhaps unsurprisingly for the oldest building in Sheffield, there are many ghostly tales associated with the Old Queens Head. It's believed in some quarters to be one of the most haunted pubs in England and has been investigated numerous times by local ghost groups. One particular strange piece of phenomena is that of activity reported in the ladies toilet. Someone has been heard in the cubicles by witnesses who have known they are on their own. The same presence tries to unlock cubicles and has also been known to unroll toilet paper onto the floor. Another spirit is believed to sit at a table in the snug. A pint of beer would often appear at the end of the night, leading the landlord to accuse his staff of failing to clean up properly. The staff furiously denied this and when the pint continued to appear night after night, the landlord tasted it and determined that it wasn't a beer he sold. One night, he decided to leave the pint instead of throwing it away. The following morning, the pint had been drunk. He decided to film the area with CCTV but the phantom pint has not appeared since. One spirit, believed to be one of the Civil War soldiers who helped to take the castle on the orders of Cromwell, has been seen sitting by the old stone fireplace, still clutching a jug of beer. There is also an alleged haunted cabinet on the property. This was removed from an upstairs room and relocated to a downstairs area. On more than one occasion, this was seen to have somehow moved itself away from the wall and to the bottom of the stairs that lead to the room from which it was removed. A former staff member actually reported the cabinet lurching towards her whilst she was in the cellar, causing her to flee in fright.

With thoughts of ghosts and beer fresh in mind, I left this pub and made my next move, this time to the north of the city centre, following the route of the main trunk road through the city to the area known as Kelham Island. My next few locations were in relatively close proximity to each other and the first of these was Shakespeare's Ale & Cider House.



After an 18 month period of closure, this former Georgian coaching inn reopened as a pub on July 20th 2011. Having been closed by Punch Taverns in 2010, it was rescued by real ale and music fan William Wagstaff of the New Beehive Inn in Bradford, extensively refurbished and returned to its former glory. In the first 6 months following the reopening, the pub had served over 300 different ales from near and far, always featuring locale from Sheffield's excellent breweries and others from further afield. The interior layout is simple with a central lounge bar with seating to both sides and two separate rooms opposite. The toilets are through a small doorway towards the rear garden which retains the original cobbles from its previous life as a coaching inn. The toilets also feature a Periodic Table of Beers on the wall which warranted a photo in itself. Back on the bar, 8 of the 9 handpulls are in use featuring an interesting array of beers, specifically Brew York Jarsa, Stancill Barnsley Bitter, Ridgeside Cascadia, Abbeydale Surreal Ale #3, Abbeydale Deception, Hopcraft Lucifer Juice, Bad Seed Hardwired and Hopjacker Lemon Powered Spaceship. The name alone drew me to the Lucifer Juice and this is what I decided to try. This is a golden American ale with a tropical fruit aroma and a heavy, malt biscuit note, pineapple and green apple in the finish and a slick aftertaste. Not bad at all for a beer weighing in at 4.5%!  My few minutes spent here made me very glad that this pub has been resurrected. It certainly is a gem!

Just down the road, tucked into a little side street, was my next stop, named for the area I'm currently in. I now reached the Kelham Island Tavern.



This former National Pub of the Year (2008 and 2009) and regular regional and local winner was rescued from dereliction in 2002 and previously known as the Old Hart. It is laid out as a two roomed free house with an impressive garden that regularly wins awards and holds regular folk music and quiz nights every week. There are 12 handpulls on the bar and 10 of these are in use during my visit featuring Abbeydale Deception, Acorn Barnsley Bitter, Holdens Black Country Mild, Acorn Old Moor Porter, Shiny Wrench Stout, Gadd's East Kent IPA, Blackjack Four of a Kind, Salopian Freeze Frame, Pictish Alchemist Ale and Allgates Pretoria. A stout, mild and porter are always available. I decided, after a moment's deliberation, on the Freeze Frame from Shrewsbury's Salopian Brewery. At 4.8%, this is an American pale ale hopped with Simcoe and Experimental 431 hops and packed with peach, berry, tropical fruit, citrus and herbal notes. It's a delicious beer indeed and I sat in the back room next to the garden as I enjoyed the relaxed and jovial atmosphere of this pub that operates a strict no swearing rule. It's easy to see why so many awards have been given to this little place. They are thoroughly deserved!

My next stop was in the neighbouring street, meaning a short walk around the corner was all that was needed to get there. Next up was The Fat Cat.



Opened in 1981, this is the pub that started the real ale revolution in this area of Sheffield. Beers from around the country are served alongside those from the adjacent Kelham Island Brewery. Awards given to both pub and brewery adorn the walls and beer festivals are held on a regular basis. The bar occupies a small room to the right of the main entrance with seating arranged around the walls and the toilets tucked into one corner. The bar features 12 handpulls providing a choice of Kelham Island Imperial Stout, Kelham Island Pale Rider, Kelham Island Best, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Salamander Sleight of Hand, Naylor's Gold, Sonnet 43 Abolition, Bunny Boiler, Burton Bridge High Spy, Harmony Amber Ale and 2 ciders, namely Farmer Jim's Rootin' Tootin' and Cornwall Lemon & Lime. I went for the High Spy (4.5%), brewed to commemorate early radar pioneer Robert Watson-Watt, as part of Burton Bridge's Gold Medal Ales range. Brewed with Flyer and Pioneer hops, this is an easily drinkable beer with a good hop and bitter balance and a good, clean finish. There were a few other people in the pub during my visit, mostly a large group of students but also a couple of locals and I took a seat with my back to the toilets, facing one side of the U shaped bar. Today was shaping up nicely indeed and more was to come!

I now headed back into the city centre proper, towards a pub that I had visited on a couple of occasions in my uni days, due to its close proximity to the uni library and one of the buildings I used to frequent. Located on Pitt Street is the Red Deer.



This is a genuine, traditional local in the heart of the city. The small frontage of the original three-roomed pub hides an open-plan interior which has been extended to the rear with a gallery seating area. The range of cask beers is impressive with several regularly ordered through SIBA and there is also a large selection of bottled beers. The pub holds a popular quiz on Tuesdays and live music on Saturdays, with an upstairs function room available for bookings. 7 of the 10 handpulls are available at the time that I'm there with another interesting selection to choose from including Weston's Old Rosie cider, Kelham Island Easy Rider, Moorhouse Pride of Pendle, Edinbrew 85 Shilling, Whitstable Bay Red IPA, Black Sheep Holy Grail and Brewster's Rutterkin. Having not tried a Kelham beer at this point of the day it would have been almost rude not to go for the Easy Rider which was as well kept as it should have been and went down very easily indeed.

There was another short walk involved to the next destination, across West Street and down to Wellington Street to where the next pub sits on a corner. I was now at the Devonshire Cat.



I was very excited about visiting here, largely due to it being operated by Abbeydale which is one of my favourite breweries. A recent refurbishment of this large premises has changed the internal dynamic somewhat and there is now an island bar with various seating areas all around. The bar is adorned with 12 handpulls and there is also a range of more than 100 beers from around the world available for the discerning drinker. The beer choice is excellent, offering Old Rosie as its cider alongside Welbeck Henrietta, Tring Pale Four, Raw Independence, Tring Death or Glory, Vocation Bread & Butter and a large number from Abbeydale namely Rat Trapper, Absolution, Moonshine, Daily Bread, Deception and Black Mass. Moonshine is one of my favourite beers ever so no prizes for guessing which one I chose. It was as excellent as I remembered and I was very pleased to have had the chance to visit this pub and taste one of the best beers I've ever had in the city in which it was birthed.

I had 2 more places left to visit before my train home and it was now time for the almost customary visit to a local Wetherspoons. This was a couple of minutes walk away from my current location and so it wasn't long at all until I was facing the Benjamin Huntsman.




This large, two storey pub sits opposite John Lewis and is named after the inventor of Crucible Steel. Artistic representations of the Sheffield steel industry decorate the walls inside. The general layout is as you'd expect from a Wetherspoons with a large bar serving an expansive seating area. The bar features 10 handpulls 9 of which were in use, featuring Doom Bar, Abbot Ale, Ruddles, Evan Evans St. David's, Robinson's Red & Black, Black Sheep Pathfinder, Brouwerij Flink, Bagby Back Garden and Butcombe Union. I opted on this occasion for Pathfinder, here sold as it's cask name Pathmaker, from Black Sheep. At 4%, this pale ale has an adventurous, fresh aroma, juicy hops and a malty mouthfeel with a moreish finish. I hadn't come across this beer amongst Black Sheep's normal range before so this was a pleasant surprise.

My last stop was now looming and this required walking a short distance back in the direction of the train station. Situated a short distance from this, not far from Sheaf Square, is the Rutland Arms.



This traditional pub occupies a corner site in the Cultural Industries Quarter and has operated as a free house since 2009, under the same ownership as Blue Bee Brewery. Formerly multi-roomed, it has now been converted into a single room layout with the bar in one corner. The exterior retains features of the now defunct Duncan Gilmour Brewery and a majority of the windows still carry this name etched into the glass. There is a beer garden to the rear and the pub also includes a juke box but take caution in your choices as the staff humour extends to a 'forbidden music board'. Disobey at your peril! Photos of old Sheffield are displayed throughout the interior. 8 handpulls sit on the bar with a choice between Steel City Pastor of Muppets (best beer name of the day!), Mad Dog Ancho-Chilli Cheescake, Magic Rock Common Grounds, Hopcraft Rudi in Orbit, Hopcraft Temple of Love, Blue Bee Hillfoot Best, Blue Been Reet Pale and Shaky Bridge Moonshine Cider. Rudi in Orbit was my unusually-named choice as my final beer for the day. With an ABV of 4.5%, this is Hopcraft's take on a New Zealand pale ale with a big hit of hops followed by a smooth, dry finish and a malty backbone. I stood at the bar to enjoy this final beverage before it was time to make my way back to the station for the journey back home. The Rutland Arms is a cracking little pub and it obviously appeals to local football supporters as well as there are a few Sheffield United fans around for pre-match beers. It's good to see pubs having such a mixed clientele in places like this.

Sheffield can only be described as a rousing success. Whilst this is only a handful of pubs, it acts as a cross-section of the wider city as a whole and I've already earmarked a few others that will definitely be on future lists as there's no way that one trip is anywhere near enough to do this marvellous city justice. There will be future visits and there will be so many more pubs in Sheffield that will one day feature in these pages. If the pubs in this entry are any indication of what's to come, I cannot wait!

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