Attercliffe pubs then and now

Hello,

  I was sent a message recently by Tash with a link to an online magazine article about "Sheffield's former East End pubs" - this was to my mind a little strange as it ran from the Fat Cat at Kelham Island up to the former Staniforth Arms on Staniforth Road in Darnall. The only link I could see between those listed was the river Don....and lets be honest, that would not include the Staniforth Arms....

This did however get me thinking about my knowledge of pubs in Attercliffe, many of which I never went in, but as I attended College at Stradbroke I used to travel through the lower part of Attercliffe en route to Hadsworth, and when working in Rotherham I often got to see the further up parts of Attercliffe. I did go to a number of pubs in Attercliffe and further on in Carbrook in the last ten years but there are many I never ventured into. Against this background, here are a few memories.

The Sportsman 504 Attercliffe Road - according to Whatpub this venue closed in 2014 after it had become the Buzz Stop Party Bar. There are quite a few references to its various Karaoke bar names such as Bar Indigo and MJ's Karaoke, but I remembered it back in 1990 as the Sportsman. I also recall seeing it on local news at that time as being the location of a regional conker competition held in the very small outdoor area next door, and also on the street in front.. It may have been a Wards house but am not certain, but I am happy to confirm that I never went in when it was a pub, or in any of it's later guises.

The same goes for nearby former pub the Robin Hood. I understand this shut around 1986 and after a brief name change soon after it reopened as the La Chambre Swingers Club. Likewise I can confirm that I attended none of it's versions at any stage, but that I didn't realise it's former name until quite recently.

Also nearby, and I remember this as a Hardy and Hansons pub, was the Dog and Partridge - this is also a pub I never went in, nor its later versions - I am not aware that this venue is currently open either.

News next of a pub I went in - just near the point where Britannia Road meets up with Attercliffe Road. In 2014 I went on a pub crawl with my mate Christingpher, starting at the Sportsman in Darnall. The two of us headed down Main Road and under the Aqueduct before we popped in the Don Valley Hotel,  and to our surprise found two handpumps and two real ales on offer, both from Howard Town. Regrettably one had run out and the guy serving me said they only usually had one on at a time, and this was continued when I went in again with Davefromtshop soon after. When I first returned with Tash later on that year, or perhaps in early 2015, they had stopped selling real ale but were serving Cider from one of the handpumps, and the pub was very busy with folk watching horse racing on numerous tellies or playing pool in the room on your right.

Further up there are two now former pubs - the first is the Greyhound, also possibly a Wards pub. My first visit was in 1992 or 93 when me and Scott and others visited the Don Valley Stadium to enjoy a festival in the park nearby. There may be a previous link between this pub and the also nearby Cocked Hat on Worksop Road - I understand this is awaiting a new tenant, but it has been closed for some time. The name connection is Robshaw - I think Anthony who used to run the Cocked Hat, either previously worked at the Greyhound or it was run by his Father. My next visit to the Greyhound was a short period in the noughties when Marstons took it over and tried to sell a decent range of real ales. The pub also served food as well as it's range of ales, but alas this was a short change of style - am not sure when it stopped trading as a pub but it did become a business centre and now am unsure what it is used for.

Further up Attercliffe Road is a pub that I have never seen open - the Travellers. Christingpher insists he went drinking in there with his work mates when he worked at his Dad's metal working firm in the nineties but being so far up the road I probably didn't see it until 1998 which is when I started working in Rotherham, and am certain it was shut then (info suggests it shut in 2007 but am not sure about this).

Just before you reached the Cocked Hat you walk past the Britannia Inn - not a pub I ever visited but I have my suspicions that Davefromtshop did in the eighties when he first joined CAMRA - that and the Captive Queen at Arbourthorne or Norfolk Park. The Britannia has a date written on the gable end proclaiming 1772 - and is reputed to be the former or at some point residence of Benjamin Huntsman (according to a quick internet check I should point out) whom originally had a forge next door around 1812.

The Cocked Hat was a pub I first visited in 1994 and in which I ate and drank a number of times. When Anthony had it I remember they had a very substantial collection of beer bottles on shelves high up the wall and always served an excellent pint. As I mentioned above I know that new tenants took this over and I remember going there and eating at this point - and as far as I can recall the pub was still owned by Marstons. Me and Davefromtshop definitely went in at some point after this, where although Marstons were still potentially involved the beer range was very much hit and miss, and after it closed, for a while somebody lived upstairs whilst the pub remained boarded up.

There used to be a pub, now a mosque, further up, called the White Hart but that may have closed in 1982. Across the road from that, and also one I never visited but one that I do remember being open was called  Fara's. Am not sure when it closed but I don't remember it being open when we passed in 2014, and am unable to recall whether or not they sold real ale.

Further down Attercliffe Road there was a Regional Inventory listed pub called the Station - also not a place I visited but Wee Keefy went in their with his work mates one dinner time or evening when he worked nearby and found it interesting if nothing else. I understand it had a mural or drawing in the back room. And there were - and am guessing no longer are - two further pubs on this section of Attercliffe Road before you reach the currently open Carlton, them being the Kings Head and the Horse and Jockey.

I first went to the Carlton in 1998 to 2001 - I can remember clearly that they sold a Theakstons Cool Cask beer along with another real ale, and that the pub was filled with smoke (a fact that may more correctly date said visit). They had a 1980's or similar Hi-fi playing almost extensively 1970s and 80's tunes including some punk tracks. I found the place interesting and when I next popped in it had been taken over by Bob. He soon got hold of the bar from the Yellow Lion in Apperknowle as it was being dismantled and introduced a range of real ales, served from the cellar in what I recall on my trip down there were casks sat on their ends with the pipe in the top - something I had only previously seen in the Hillsborough Hotel when Del ran it. There was a suggestion of food but am not sure that ever took off but I remember that the place was a lot tidier and brighter, and before he left I remember both him winning at least one CAMRA pub of the month award, and also introducing a no swearing policy. The regulars changed quite a lot whilst he was running it - and may indeed still own it - and the atmosphere was much improved as well. I last went in 2016 with Tash and Matty and we all enjoyed it.  

Further down Attercliffe Road (which in the past was known as Carlton Road) was a traditional workers pub called the Bulldog. This has seen a large number of changes of use in the last twenty five years including numerous bars since it closed as a pub - an event am guessing must have been in 1990 or 1991 which is when I used to see it on the bus home from College.

Finally, although I have missed the pub on Washford Bridge which closed a long time ago, there used to be a Tetley pub called the Norfolk Arms Hotel on Attercliffe Road/Warren Street. I understand this closed in the 1980s as a pub and then became a number of saunas before settling on City Sauna - a place now a brothel which recently featured on TV showing the antics undertaken within..... Alas this is also a pub I never went in, but am lead to believe it originally opened in 1830 and was for many years physically attached to the mighty Tempered Spring Co factory previously behind it.

There was another pub on Warren Street which may have been called the Vulcan and one on a back road near Washford Bridge but that will have to be a theme for a future post.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy


  

Three Tuns closes again, Star Pubs await new sacrificial lamb

Hello readers,

     am a bit late with this as always but I am sad to announce that once again the Three Tuns on Silver Street Head in Sheffield has closed down, awaiting a new manager to be driven nearly to madness and financial ruin by pushing the boulder of pub management up the hill of unavoidable failure.

I heard about this from my friend Reason who said he had witnessed Ed's resignation speech, in which he *may have claimed that Star and Heineken still made profit from the failing pub through tax rebates and write offs and other details I have since forgotten, whilst managers struggled under the yoke of pubco imperialism.

Am so sorry for Ed, and his staff, who took on the unworkable task of running this pub out of love and devotion to regulars only to see the exercise for the unwieldy deception that it is. I genuinely thought that through his and his staff's hard wok the Tuns may return to its glory days under Reet Ale Pubs but alas that is very unlikely to happen ever again. Pubco's don't want to run pubs, except for the absolute star performers. The others are just flat or house conversions waiting to happen.

 I had an interesting chat, possibly with Reason, but maybe with another human with a name, about how one could succeed running a pub or bar or venue for a pubco. The replying orator confirmed that they had chatted to a long term pub manager who advised that the best way to succeed was to not. As demonstrated by the Dog and Partridge under the stewardship of the Flynns, for whom I understand running a successful pubco pub was rewarded only with an increase in rent or other liabilities. The trick, my friend was told,  is to run the pub at about even or at a minor loss, keeping you under the pubco radar so that no increases in payments are generated. In effect, assuming that is true, its actually impossible to make a good living running a pubco house. Does that not strike anyone as madness?

Of course its much less like madness if one remembers the Star Inns how to theme a pub guide which I found online when researching the Church House in 2012. Unattributable stereotypical nonsense dreamed up in a tower in la-la land by robots who have never visited earth, or met real people. Am fairly sure the link is no longer active but searching Star Inns & Bars Three Tuns Sheffield brings up a link to their page about the pub and their "Is it for me" PDf guide to running a pub with them. Well worth a look, if you can forgive there being no mention of the costs of buying all drinks through them (Ed once told me he could buy Blue Bee beers through the pubco, but only at twice the price he could from the brewery, which he was not allowed to do).

I sincerely hope somebody does take on the Three Tuns and reopens it once again as a quality boozer, so that I have somewhere to go before the Shakespeares and Bar Stewards, Dougie has somewhere permanent to do his quiz, I have somewhere I can meet A-ray, Paul-Ray, Mr Bancroft and the Professor, and so that drinkers once more have a traditional centre of town boozer to relax in and socialise.

In reality however, given its four or five closures since I started drinking there, am expecting to be writing something similar in 6 to 12 months time.

Como siempre.

Beeficus the black



*am not certain of the details of the speech. My memories tell me this was said, so you can imagine how much verisimilitude that holds.....