Sheffield / Derbyshire Trip 2009

On 21st Feb 2009, a superb day weather wise, 39 of us set off from Humberstone Gate via Loughborough to Sheffield where we duly arrived around 11 20am. A lot of people know Sheffield like the back of their hands so they didn’t need a map to help them on their way.

I took a small group to the Hillsborough Hotel but, it wasn’t open so we caught a tram to the Rawson Spring Wetherspoons at Hillsborough where I sampled Acorn Hailstorm before returning back to the Hillsborough Hotel. Here there was a choice of 8 beers including 4 from the Crown Brewery based at the hotel. I sampled Crown Traditional Bitter and Wendy. Both the food and the beer matched the excellent hospitality shown.

L-R Coach, Hillsborough Hotel, Kelham Island Tavern, Fat Cat

We then moved to the Kelham Island Tavern, now national pub of the year! We found a full range of beers on, unfortunately though I made no notes as to what I tasted.

Our next pub was the Fat Cat which had beers from breweries like Thornbridge Hall, Hornbeam, Saltaire, Timothy Taylors & Kelham Island so everyone was spoilt for choice. Walking back to the coach I said I didn't know where the 3hour break had gone!

We then set off for the Thornbridge Hall owned, The Coach & Horses, Dronfield. Our visit had to be timed whilst the first half of a football match was in progress on an adjacent field. It had 5 beers from the brewery ranging in gravity from the 3.5% Wild Swan to the 5.9% Jaipur, so something for everyone. I  personally sampled Cuprium 4.9%, a new beer to me.

L-R Coach & Horses, Bar and Arkwright Arms.

I had intended next to visit the Spire Brewery at Staveley but due to a misunderstanding we were invited to the Britannia Inn at New Tupton instead after we’d visited The Arkwright Arms at Duckmanton. This pub has won various awards in the past few years and up until November 2008 I’d never been there. Since then I have visited it 4 times which is more than I’ve visited some of the pubs in Leicester! We were lucky as today the brewer from the Brew Company of Sheffield was there along with 9 of his beers. The gravity range was from 3.8% - 5% so again everyone’s strengths were catered for. Here again the hospitality of the staff and the locals was excellent.

We then moved to the Britannia at New Tupton. Here we found 7 Spire beers on ranging from Good as Gold 3.8% to Winters Tale 6.6%. Barry the Landlord looked after us very well providing us with a curry which was well received, also present was Graham the Head Brewer. He was over the moon as they’d won 3 Golds & 1 Bronze at the Rotherham beer festival. Yet again you couldn’t fault the beer quality or the hospitality.

Our final visit was one of my favourite pubs, the Old Oak at Horsley Woodhouse. Here we found a good selection of  Leadmill and Bottle Brook beers on the bar plus a good amount of guest ales on the RuRad (Rural Real Ale Drinkers) bar which is open at weekends.

I know everyone enjoyed the trip. All of the pubs visited can be visited by using a Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket which covers buses and trains throughout the county.

Keith Satterly

This page last updated: April 15, 2011

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