Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Sheffield – Fat Cat

    Sheffield – Fat Cat

    Roger Protz, the great beer writer, wrote that the founder of this pub, Dave Wickett, told him:

    “Dave told me a wonderful story of how he bought the Fat Cat, refurbished it and was ready to open but he didn’t have any beer. He phoned Wards, who were still brewing, and none other than the head brewer came round and asked to see the cellar.

    “I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” he told Dave. “I’ll put a cellar tank in with pressure points on the bar and away you go.”

    “I don’t want that,” Dave said. “I want casks and handpumps.”

    “Nobody wants to drinks that anymore,” the man from Wards said and stormed off in a huff. In desperation Dave phoned Timothy Taylor in Keighley and asked if he could buy an 18-gallon cask of Landlord and was told Sheffield was outside the brewery’s delivery area.

    So Dave drove to Keighley, put the cask in the boot of his car and took it back to the pub. Two days later he phoned Taylors who said they expected he’d been unable to sell the beer.

    “No,” Dave told them. “It went in two days and I want two more casks.”

    “In that case, we’ll deliver,”

    Taylors said and with just three cask of ale Dave Wickett helped the brewery turn Landlord into a national brand.”

    The pub opened in 1981, so this was one of the forerunners of the real ale movement in the city, a brave and innovative decision at the time. There was also an innovative change in 1986, when there was a non-smoking room introduced into the pub, which was the first one in Sheffield.

    The Chasing Casks Irish Stout from Kelham Island Brewery, which I recall was well kept, although unfortunately I remember nothing more, other than I marked it as 4 out of 5 on Untappd…. We followed in the problem group from the previous pub into this location, but fortunately they found another place to sit in the pub whereas we found a suitable area elsewhere.

    The high tide mark on the side of the pub. There were some floods the week after we visited, although I’m not sure if this area suffered any damage.

    The pub was busy, but the staffing was friendly and engaging, with the barman being conversational and knowledgeable about the beer options. All very comfortable and the building itself is quite intriguing, and Nathan managed to walk us round about three rooms before he found the bar. But, I don’t like to comment on such things….

    My favourite TripAdvisor review…

    “CRAP larger, unfriendly bar staff with no personality made us feel like we was an inconvenience”

    This is a win-win when I see a review like this, because I can see it’s a pub that obviously doesn’t sell Stella and lager is mis-spelt far too much….

    I liked this pub, although I mildly regret that it was so busy I didn’t get more chance to look at the building itself. CAMRA have a detailed history of the pub and the interior, so perhaps I’ll get to go back in the future to have a better look at this.

  • Sheffield – Harlequin Pub

    Sheffield – Harlequin Pub

    This was one of the last pubs on our pub trail and it’s part of the Kelham Island tour. The pub was formerly known as the Manchester and it was renamed Harlequin after a nearby pub which had closed and been demolished.

    For reasons I’m not quite sure, but are probably related to the exciting Alan Partridge quiz that Liam was excelling at, I forgot to update Untappd and so I can’t recall what I ordered. Nathan will probably know, he has a memory for irrelevant information, but I’m sure it would have been the Sorsby Stout from the Tapped Brewery Company.

    As for my usual dip into TripAdvisor, it’s fair to say that this is, well, a rather unusual review…

    “A man in toilet on saturday made lewd comments to me, apparantly this is a regular thing in here on a saturday night, this is cottaging and should not be allowed, drinks are well overpriced for a skanky pub, GARBAGE, watch your bum in the toilets, WEIRDOS.”

    This was a perfectly welcoming community pub, the prices were reasonable, an interesting selection of beers were available and the staff were friendly enough. But, still, for me the memory will be Liam’s ridiculously detailed knowledge of Alan Partridge….

  • Sheffield – What If Poem by Andrew Motion

    Sheffield – What If Poem by Andrew Motion

    Located at Sheffield Hallam University, this is quite a statement…. A different form of art, something quite evocative I thought.

  • Sheffield – Fagans

    Sheffield – Fagans

    Not much has changed in this pub for some decades, but that’s all for the good, as it has maintained an historic charm. CAMRA note that the pub has had only three landlords over the last 100 years, not least Joe Fagan, who was Tetley’s longest serving landlord, running the premises from 1947 until 1985. Before the pub was renamed after Fagan, it was known as the Barrel and had been trading since at least the early nineteenth century.

    The choice is Tetley’s cask….

    Or Abbeydale Moonshine.

    An old Tetley’s board in the pub. There is a rear room which has been converted from part of the landlord’s former accommodation, along with a tiny snug to the right when entering, which is apparently also known as the ‘dram shop’. The service in the pub was friendly and we were served quickly, even though the pub was busy. We didn’t eat, and I’m not sure that they were still serving meals, but their reviews for food are excellent.

    On reflection, I suspect we were under-charged a little, as this was the cheapest round of the weekend by at least a couple of pounds. We didn’t stay an overly long time as there was live music on and the pub was full, but there was a welcoming and laid-back feel. I do slightly suspect though, good as this pub clearly is, that it might not have made the cut for the Good Beer Guide in other cities, as the choice of real ale is one of two, both of which are commonly seen, it’s solely reliant on the community feel of the location. Although as it’s an institution that should perhaps be visited, I’m glad that I went.

  • Sheffield – Bath Hotel

    Sheffield – Bath Hotel

    Listed in the Good Beer Guide, this pub has also been credited by CAMRA as having ‘Nationally Important Historic Pub Interior’ status. This is very much deserved, it’s a quirky two room pub where the old saloon and public bar set-up remains evident. There’s something wonderful about seeing old signage for these bars, it’s a reminder of the pub’s history and also how society has changed over the generations.

    There was no need for me to ponder my choice, which was the Cocoa Wonderland chocolate porter from Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell. I saw this beer in a few pubs over the weekend, it’s a rich tasting beer with a strong chocolate edge, which is, to be honest, a quite marvellous combination.

    There were a few signs like this, there was an evident sense of humour and the bar staff were friendly and helpful as well.

    Pinching the pub’s own history of their building:

    “Our Grade II listed pub dates back to 1867, at one time it appears to have doubled as a grocers and a beer house. The first recorded use of the name ‘Bath Hotel’ was in 1908. Ind Coope bought it up around the time of the First World War and remodelled the interior in 1931, extending the pub part into what had been the grocers. The building today is scarcely altered since 1931 apart from the loss of the off-sales (hence the disused doorway on Victoria Street). In the sharp angle of the streets there is a triangular shaped bar with seating and a hatch servery.”

    I didn’t notice the old off-sales door, although it makes sense now that I’ve had a look at the building again on Google Maps.

    There’s also an interesting TripAdvisor review, which noted:

    “We like this place but we won’t be rushing back. Got here a little early, 11.56, and was pleasantly surprised to find the door was open.”

    The pub worked out the time of entry as actually being 11:31, which is a slightly amusing difference, and I can guess which story is most likely to be accurate.

    Anyway, this was one of my favourite pubs of all that we visited in Sheffield, the laid-back atmosphere, the sense of history to the building and the excellent beer choice all combined into a not unpleasant visit. Another well deserved entry into the Good Beer Guide if I may say so…. (and I doubt enough people will ever read this to be able to stop me saying so).

  • Sheffield – Banker’s Draft

    Sheffield – Banker’s Draft

    The final stop of our first night in Sheffield was at Wetherspoons, for a number of reasons, but not least because they open late.

    The beer selection was fine, although unusually lacking in darker beer options. The service was though top notch, a friendly and engaging staff member who was keen to answer questions and to comment on Ross’s ridiculous beer selection. The Riders on the Storm beer was also fine, a decent enough golden ale.

    A spacious building with high ceilings, as can be guessed from the pub name, it was formerly a bank. Originally operated by the York & County Bank in 1904, it was used by the Midland Bank until 1989 and the building then became redundant. Wetherspoons have helpfully taken photographs of inaccessible parts of the building, including the stabling area in the cellars and the upper offices, a marvellous idea given the history of the pub.

    Anyway, onto TripAdvisor. The Wetherspoon’s Christmas meal has, I understand from listening to staff, been a repeat of last year’s debacle, where there’s no gravy provided and it’s all reheated in one go. But, it’s £8.75 including a drink, so there has to be some expectation management going on here. Anyway, one customer from last week isn’t pleased:

    “I came in bankers draft with my wife and my parents we all had Christmas dinner and the gravy was like water on 3 and my one had no gravy and told a member of staff about it they said they will get me some gravy but never did and the staff are incompetent as staff never came and asked if everything was ok and you should train your staff in good corporate hospitality and the meat was not from a turkey joint and it was processed meat you need to retrain all your staff from back of house to front of house”

    Not from a turkey joint, I can’t say that I’m surprised…

    Maybe we got lucky, but the service was some of the best I’ve experienced in a Wetherspoons, so all very lovely.

  • Sheffield – National Videogame Museum

    Sheffield – National Videogame Museum

    After it became apparent to me that the others wouldn’t consider spending eight hours in Greggs as a suitable activity for the day, we went to the National Videogame Museum. A slightly confused branding meant that they’re pitched it at children, but, fortunately, that wasn’t the actual reality and also, it didn’t matter as some of our group are childish anyway.

    Aaaah, an Amiga, such happy memories  🙂

    This was quite exciting, as although I’ve played this game many times, it has never been on an actual arcade machine. I can also see how much money these machines must have taken, as I kept on having another go to try and get just a little further each time. That was fine here, as there’s a one-off £11 fee to get in and then everything is on free play. As a place to take kids, it’s not bad at all, primarily as there’s no real way for them to spend more money, as long as they’re kept away from the small shop area at the end of the visit.

    Zool, which is one game that I remember, although I appeared to be no better at it twenty years on….

    Football Manager is perhaps one of the greatest games ever written as far as I’m concerned, very classy. I note that the author of the game, Kevin Toms, is on Facebook promoting a new app version of the game and I hope that proves to be popular.

    As with Space Invaders, I’d never played Tetris on an arcade version and it was no less addictive.

    The ridiculously difficult QWOP, which it’s fair to say that I didn’t manage to master. Nathan, irritatingly, was quite good at the game, although I suspect that’s because he’s spent weeks playing it.

    Nathan and Scott playing Guitar Hero, or something similar. I can’t remember who won, but they took it very seriously.

    Overall, it wasn’t difficult to spend a couple of hours here (although one of our party started to falter after around an hour) and some of us managed to relive our past….. There’s probably more that could be done at the museum given the floor space available to them, but there were numerous consoles and computers from different periods of gaming history, so there was a broad selection already. There’s also more that could be done to tell the story of gaming history, which isn’t really done at all, and that would justify the museum tag a little more.

    Hopefully, this is one of those locations which slowly but surely adds to its collections and therefore it gets a little better every year. Given a few more years, it’d be nice to think that all of the floor space is used and there is more of an informational feel to the museum, in addition to engaging children (and adults) with more games to play.

  • Nottingham – Graves at St. Nicholas’s Church

    Nottingham – Graves at St. Nicholas’s Church

    It’s fortunate that this church has survived at all, since there was talk of demolishing it in the 1960s. Due to slum clearance and the construction of a huge road right to the side of the church, the parish manages to have absolutely no parishioners within its official boundaries, which isn’t an ideal way to run things. It’s also positive that it’s clearly now a vibrant church, but I am saddened a little to see the state of the graves in the churchyard.

    These aren’t great photos, as they’re from 2016 and they’ve been compressed by Google Photos, but they tell a sad tale of their own. I like to think that the trend of embedding gravestones into pavements has long since gone, something seemingly relatively common in the 1970s, but I’m sure it won’t be the last time they’re treated in such a way. Someone at some stage likely paid out money that they couldn’t easily afford to pay for these stones for a loved one, a state of affairs that perhaps shouldn’t be forgotten in haste.

  • Nottingham – Gooseberry Bush

    Nottingham – Gooseberry Bush

    A big part of the reason for this blog is solely for me to remember where I’ve been, as I had forgotten that I went here back in 2017. Which isn’t exactly that long ago, but there we go….

    This pub was named Varsity for a while, primarily because it’s next door to Nottingham Trent University, but the Gooseberry Bush name is far better, named after the old maternity hospital which was previously on this site. The pub was opened in 1984 by Mansfield Brewery, a now defunct company which was formerly a major player in the area, although now subsumed by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, now better known as Marston’s Brewery. Wetherspoons acquired and modernised the pub in 2011 and it’s a slightly complex building as it has been built onto the site of a slope.

    It’s a pretty bland interior, but all entirely functional. I can’t remember the choice of real ales (I struggle to remember for more than five minutes, let alone over two years), but I do know that I had a pint of Guinness, but this was before I became stupidly obsessed with the range of real ales and craft beers that were available in pubs…..

    I had a little look on TripAdvisor for any reviews that intrigued me, and this one is actually quite good in terms of my being able to build up a picture of just what happened. Someone signed up for the site just to leave this review…

    “I was waiting just fine in the line for proper 15 minutes waiting for the lady who served me earlier to come back to her place in the till. Then this thin lanky short guy turns out of nowhere and starts using the draft beside the till. I politely asked him where the lady was and he was proper rude and replied saying he was busy. I was thoroughly disappointed with that male who started insulting me for just trying to talk to a lady staff member who had served me earlier. Honestly I wasn’t even talking to him. He was proper rude and started moaning about how his day has been busy and all. All I wanted to know was where was the lady who was there before him cause she looked more skilled. I did not want to be served by him and I saw no point in him shouting at me for asking him to serve me. Where as I wasn’t asking him to serve me in the first place. I did not sign up for that. This one star is only because there was no option for no stars. Also I did not want to be served by him anyway cause he looked like an armature by the way he was using the draft beer taps. The pitcher he made for us later was terrible and I wish I could’ve asked for a refund. Everyone agreed with that. Also he kept on moaning to his coworkers about what happened. What a big petty drama seeking liar. My mate was too drunk to see what exactly happened. The guy beside me just literally entered when this happened. I did not bother explaining myself to any of the people who were drunk there. I kept that bar tender to mind his own business as I wasn’t even talking to him in the first place but he kept on and on. The other staffs were good. Security guards were pleasant.”

    At least he was happy with the security guards.

  • Mansfield – Stag and Pheasant

    Mansfield – Stag and Pheasant

    Located just around the corner from another Wetherspoon pub, the Widow Frost, this pub takes its name from another licensed premises which once stood on the corner between the two venues. The current building dates from 1910 when it was opened as Palace Electric Theatre and later the Palace Theatre, but it closed in 1949. A new frontage was added to the building in the 1960s, hence the rather strange look of having a modern exterior and an older interior. Its time as a theatre came to an end and it was then converted by Wetherspoons into this pub.

    The pub didn’t have any dark beers, but this one seemed an interesting option. The branding of this beer confused me a little, it wasn’t clear to me what Chapter 8 was and the barman was equally unsure, but it seems that the beer name was the Jammy Dodger and the brewery is Fuggle Bunny. The beer was excellent, a sweet taste with some caramel flavours, a very drinkable ale.

    I hadn’t realised when I visited here that Mansfield were holding their Christmas lights turning on, so I abandoned staying any longer in the town as I thought it’d be too busy. Certainly, Wetherspoons was nearly full, although I noted that they seemed to have more customers than the number of people listening to the live acts in the market square.

    It’s a Lloyds pub and so I assume that there’s a vibrant atmosphere on weekend evenings, especially since Wetherspoons have the advantage of another pub around the corner for those who prefer something quieter. The inside of the pub has an historic feel and there are a couple of tables on the upper tiers which look out onto the ground floor. Service in the pub was also helpful and friendly, there was a relaxed atmosphere despite how busy it was.