Welcome to the future of banking…… Barclays closed their Swaffham branch in 2018, Natwest have closed theirs and the couple that remain look like they might go as well. But, this exciting van has replaced the Natwest branch, with the extensive hours of 13:30 until 15:00 on Mondays and Thursdays, this has certainly got the people of Swaffham comprehensively covered…..
Category: UK
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Dereham – Dereham Library
After my failed visit to Swaffham Library, I was pleased to see the council have bothered to open Dereham Library. So, I thought I’d look at the Pevsner here to see what I’d missed in Swaffham. I was moderately confused as to why they have the London North West guide in Dereham, but the Norwich & North-East makes more sense. Although, it doesn’t cover Swaffham or Dereham, that’s the North-West and South Norfolk book, which Dereham library should have. So, I check the on-line catalogue and there is a copy in Dereham, which pleases me.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, a very friendly and helpful member of library staff ponders where this book is. We’ve concluded someone has pinched it as they can’t find it either. Anyone reading something as wonderful as Pevsner should not be stealing it!
But, just bloody marvellous…. (although to be fair to the very helpful staff member, they did offer to get a replacement copy sent to Dereham library for future visitors).
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Swaffham – Swaffham Library
I had this marvellous idea during my trip to Swaffham that after a couple of pubs and a visit to the church, I’d quickly read Pevsner in the library and then do a little perambulation as he’d call it, before visiting the museum. Anyway, the library is closed if you don’t have your library card. I don’t. So, I abandoned Swaffham, its library and its museum. It’s not for me to comment on who is responsible for inaccessibility of public libraries, but it can’t be good for the future of the library service.
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Edwinstowe – Royal Oak
After a less than successful visit to the nearby Black Swan (which was fine, but devoid of any real ale), we headed back to the Royal Oak which looked perfectly adequate from the exterior. It’s an Everard’s pub and it felt like one of those successful pubs which had managed to satisfy the diners and the drinkers. The staff were welcoming and signage made clear that walkers were welcome, which is something I do like to see. The pub is dog friendly as well, although they’ve made what I consider the sensible decision to ban dogs from the main dining area.
I’m a big fan of the Titanic Brewery and their Plum Porter never disappoints me, so that’s the option that I went for. I also ignored the fact that the bottles in front of the pumps, which are meant to indicate the beer colour, hardly seemed accurate as Plum Porter isn’t that colour. Anyway, the beer didn’t disappoint here either, with the barman pro-actively mentioning that he’d top the pint up after it had settled. The choice of beers was well measured, with a variety of different beer types, with craft beer options also available.
It’s apparent that they have a system where customers must sign in at the bar for the car park, since there were signs which appeared to be located everywhere, on the front door, on the bar, on every table, on the wall, in the toilets and no doubt in the car park. It seemed a clunky way to handle the car parking situation, although I’m sure it must be frustrating for them if people are abusing it.
Anyway, a very lovely pub and it was clean and organised throughout, with the beer selection meeting my requirements.
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Sheffield – Real Ale in the 1970s
When I was in Sheffield, the locally produced CAMRA magazine, Beer Matters, had been published and it was the five hundredth issue. They were looking back at the history of real ale in the city and in 1975 there was a bar crawl of the city which took in every single real ale being sold. This totalled ten cask beers, of which four were on handpump and six on electric pump, along with a few real ales in bottles. The cost of these beers, and the buses to get between them, cost £3.
We are fortunate indeed for the many volunteers within CAMRA who established the organisation and have ensured we’re not in a similar position today with such a limited choice. The magazine also notes that if someone attempted the same pub crawl today, visiting every pub, it would take at least forty nights and days to complete.
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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.
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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….
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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.
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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.
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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).
